


Twins, twins, twins...

by sureiminsane



Category: Coraline (2009), Gravity Falls, ParaNorman (2012)
Genre: A bit of humour later, Aged-Up Characters, Bill losing his power, Bill's sister - Freeform, Dark!Dipper, Demon Powers, Don't Examine This Too Closely, Don't Try This At Home, Glitter, Human bill, Mabel Pines crushes and past partners, Mabel Pines' Sweaters, Mabel beeing so Mabelish, Magic-Users, Mermaids and mermans, More glitter, Multi, Okay a lot of humour, Parties, Rainbow, Sharing a Bed, Sleepovers, Smile, Sparkly, Tagging is difficult, Twins, demon, don't just ignore my spelling mistakes, mabel and fairies, magic!Dipper, magic!Mabel, magiiic, more taggs on the way, oh i made here one hell of taggs sorry, possesive!Bill, possesive!Dipper, shiny, summoning demons, watch out for flying girls
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-16
Updated: 2015-11-20
Packaged: 2018-04-04 17:57:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 30,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4147341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sureiminsane/pseuds/sureiminsane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Not What He Seems the Mystery Twins drifted away from each other, as Dipper lost his trust in Mabel. After all, she had chosen Stan over him.</p><p>He became more paranoid, but he found a way to destroy Bill Cipher... However a plan that involves getting rid of one demon with another isn't that great it seemed at first...</p><p>Dipper disappears from his sister's life at the age of sixteen. They meet again five years later in Gravity Falls, as a certain demon looses his powers and gets stuck in human body... Will this summer rebond them? Is that even possible? Former partners of Mabel showing up one after another are not gonna help...</p><p>Beeing emotional unstable wizard sometimes possesed by demonic power doesn't make Dipper Pines the best twin brother in the world... But he's the only one Mabel's got.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fight fire with fire, and demon with... demon?

**Author's Note:**

> You see... I'm writing a fic for the first time in my life and in a foregin lanuage! So please, help me make up all of my mistakes ;)

 

Everything started as Summer has ended. Dipper and Mabel left Gravity Falls with light heads and a feeling of being part of something big. But the euphoria hadn't lasted long against the cruel reality. The secrets remained and as the Mystery Twins tried to come back to normal life, they found themselves burning from the desire to come back. Struggling from the will to shout all the secrets loud. Frustrated, they slowly drifted away from each other.

Every summer they were back. Exploring, talking with Grandpa and Gruncle Stan. Running away from monsters and paranormal creatures. It was great. But every time, on the way home, they departed. Mabel was going back to normal life and people who ignored her or watched amused a well known, half-crazy girl. Dipper hid himself in books, he dig up everything about demons, monsters and magic. He also copied all tree journals and tried out some spells. After he was possesed by Bill, he got obsessed at this kind of stuff. He became a freak at school, but he didn't care. Mabel saw his notes and scripts, and odd, old books full of magic and legends. One day she heard Dipper talking to the demon. 'You are always keeping an eye on me, don't you, Bill?' he said to an empty room 'Then watch me, as I find the way to destroy you' Every year it was worse and worse, but they always managed to keep the relationship up somehow. Till that day.

They were sixteen when it happened. Nothing had announces the upcoming catastrophe. Mabel made herself sweet, pink and glittering sandwitches to school. She also wore a shiny sweatshirt with written ''I love glitter and I am not ashamed of that!''. Dipper thought she looked riddiculous. She was sixteen after all. Radiant, rainbow stuff wasn't right at her age. In boys mind, his sister looked like some dwarf had puked on her with rainbow. He thought, like many times before, if Mabel was colorblind somehow. He shrugged his shoulders.

Dipper was wearing black shirt, jeans and a navy blue jacket. He had also dark cap. Nothing special, nothing bad. Ideal outfit to fade in the crowd. He took his keys and went out, heading towards the school building. Twins parents were somewhere on a buissnes trip, like they always did. That means he could stay outside as long as he wanted. It's not like Mabel's gonna miss him.

As he was walking to school some boy came definitely too close, into his privet zone. He was about to pull out a knife, just in case, when boy approached him.

'Heey, Diiipper!' he said in a high voice.

Dipper hid the knife up his sleeve. He looked at the boy one more time. He was short and rather plump, in a terrible yellow shirt and red pants with braces. He also wore glasses. A typical geek. Dipper decided to give him a chance. Maybe it was just guy from mathematic course or something.

'Do I know you?' the twin asked calmly, as they walked by the bus stop.

'Noo...' boy answered 'but I know you'

An alarm bell rang in Dipper's head. Probably he was just being paranoid. He looked at the guy with anger.

'So what do you know about me?' he could hear his voice becoming stronger and sharper.

'Oh, a few of things' geek said fast. Maybe he also heard change in Dipper's tone.' You are a total nerd, a geek, a lot of girls thinks you are cute, you always sit alone, you never eat lunch, read a lot of weird-looking books and you are great at mathematics, physics, IT, chemistry and biology. But you are also not bad at PE, what is unusual for people like you'

'Yeah' he replied coldly, annoyed by the information the boy had 'So what?'

'Nothing.'

Dipper looked at him in disbelief.

'No, really' guy wanted to explain 'Nothing bad. I just... I came you to invite you somewhere.'

'Sorry, your not my type' twin replied sarcastically.

'No!' the geek got confused 'Not that kind of meaning at all!'

They stopped in front of the school gate.

'The point is: we have a group of people, demon nerds, like you. And we want to invite you for our meeting.'

'Are there any girls?' He already knew the answer. That was only a trick to get rid of people who wanted him to join some group or club.

'Uuhh... No...'

'Then i'm not coming'

Dipper turned around and walked away from the geek. What could they know about demons?

'We are gonna summon Basael!' the boy tried again.

Daniel has this old book, the guy tought. What was the name of that demon, again? Ah, yeah.

'We will try out Bill Cipher!'

Brunette froze, as he was walking away. All colors swept away from his face. He slowly, slowly turned back and gave the boy owl-like stare. His eyes were wide open with amazing blue flame burning inside. Those eyes were cold, calculating and full of disgust. Just like a demons. Geek boy shivered, as he never before saw an expression like this on human face. Dipper came closer to him, he could see hellfire taking over dark-haired boys mind. When Dipper spoke geek felt the overwhelming fear down his spine. What the heck? Was that the same boy he watched for over a month?

'Where?'

 

They met in an abbandoned mansion at the subrubs. It had it's own park and cementary. A perfect place to summon demons. No one was going to disturb.

'Except for the ghost' Dipper thought. But the ghost was low-class and hid itself when so many people came into the mansion. Eight boys looked at each other with varied expressions, from fear to pure excitement. All of them stared at Dipper. He felt very uncomfortable because of this. He was much better at ghost, demons and monsters than humans. He decided to play it cool.

'My name is Dipper, as you might know' He said, trying not to stammer 'Can we get it started or we are gonna stay here till monday morning?'

They mumred something, then one of them stepped up. The geek from earlier. Greg.

'We can start only if you promise that everything you hear or see here will remain a secret'

'Who do you think I am?' Dipper asked angrily 'I've been trough more than any one of you. I won't tell a soul. I promise. Besides, no one would believe me.'

The leader nod his head, then everyone moved to the basement door. 'Great, basement- Dipper thought- We should stay in the main hall. There's no escape from the basement.' He hoped that the phantom will close the door or disturb their way down, but nothing happened. Little girl's ghost, that he saw earlier, ran away.

The basement was just as creepy and dirty as expected. When the preparations begin Dipper came to talk with Daniel, owner of the “Great Demon Legemeton”.

Daniel was slim, even skinny and tall. He looked at Dipper with big, grey eyes. He was the most scared one. He heard from Greg, the geek, that he became like this after he got the book.

'I heard you want to summon Bill Cipher.' Dipper started softly.

'Y-y-yeah... H-he seems the l-l-least d-d-dang-g-gerous'

Dipper pulled out a few pages of journal. They were copied, but the meaning haven't faded away. He showed them to Daniel. The boy turned pale, when he saw the blood-covered piece of paper. 'CAN'T BE TRUSTED' shouted the thick, dark letters.

'D-d-do n-not sum-m-mmon a-at all c-c-costs' he read, slowly.

'As far as I know three people made deal with him' Dipper 'One ended up in jail, second was send to other dimension for thirty years and the third got possesed.'

'H-h-how do y-you k-know that?' the boy was suspicious 'From t-that b-b-book?'

'Not quite...' Dipper answered after a moment of hesitation and lowered his voice. He somehow felt that he could believe the skinny boy. 'My grandfather dissapeared for thirty years. I knew the one that ended up in jail. He was my... rival...'

'A-a-and the o-one th-that got p-p-possesed? W-w-who was th-th-that?'

Dipper gave him a long, heavy look. 'Me'

Suprisingly, Daniel just nodded his head. 'T-then w-we s-s-should choose other o-one. N-now we k-k-know it'll w-w-work o-out. I h-have a p-p-perfect one. L-l-look.'

The twin looked at the page and saw a deer-like demon with lots of horns and five eyes. It had sharp teeth and tree tails. Instead of hooves it stood on hand-like paws with long claws. It was in section called 'Underworld'. It's name was As Zahzel

'At least it's not another dream demon' Dipper sighted.

'B-b-but look h-h-here' Daniel pointed out an information that brunette missed.'ENEMY: BILL CIPHER'

'It explains the deer teeth' he whispered to himself.

They set up everything just as it was in the book. The pentagram, the runes and the candles. Boys stood around as Daniel started to read the spell. His voice became amazingly strong and the stuttering disappeared.

'SALVE AS ZAZEL TEHEME QUE RENAN PAXATE ME KAMITE A SPELARE TE SURA'

Green light slowly started to fill the room. The pentagram was shinnig. Fire surrounded David and his eyes lit.

...TEHEME QUE RENAN PAXATE ME KAMITE A SPELARE TE SURA …!

...TEHEME QUE RENAN PAXATE ME KAMITE...!

...TEHEME QUE RENNAN...!

...AS ZAHSEL!

Green flames rose in the middle of room, opening a square portal to another dimension. Something big and dark crawled out it, slowly forming from black flames. A deer looked at them, green fire burning around the horns and in it's eyes. That was the moment other boyes freaked out and started to run. The basement door closed, and the fire circled teenagers, closing them in. That's exactly what Dipper feared. Demon started to laugh, a dark, crazy, cackling laugh, that froze the people around. Daniel was pale and sweating, his strength was drained out at summoning the monster. His legs were shivering and he looked like he's gonna faint, but his face had a determined expression.

And then monster attacked. Dipper shouted out a spell, making a magic barrier that demon crashed into. He could feel his bones shaking from the impact. The deer looked at him, a little amused. It blinked a few times, every eye apart. Dipper was running through his memory to find a suitable spell, but the only one he could think about was the one to raise the dead... Not right for the moment.

And then Daniel stepped trough the barrier like it wasn't there. Amusing black robe that he wore now looked grave-serious, torn and burn from green flames, with a strange pattern, that wasn't there formerly. Boys eyes were dark as he approached the demon.

'Daniel! Don't go there! Wait!' Dipper shouted, but Daniel wasn't listening to him. He tried to run after the boy, but his own barrier stopped him. He thought of undoing the spell, but it was the only thing that parted all boys and flames. And a certain demon. He couldn't do that. They were human beings. He couldn't give up on them. But he couldn't give up on Daniel either.

He looked at other people in the room. All of them were safe, but the entrance was at the other side of the chamber. Boys had to go through the demon and flames. Hr eyed them once more. There was no use. They all were death-scared or paniced. One of them wet himself, and they weren't even in actual danger, Dipper made a grimase.

Only Greg, tough panicked, managed to gather himself somehow. Daniel was slowly walking to the demon. 'We have to get them out of here!' Dipper shouted to geek and gestured the boys. 'Right' plump boy nodded his head as he calmed down a bit. Now he had an aim, he could help. 'There was somewhere a second door! To the garden! But we never used it! It's closed'

Oh, so this basement was such a fucked up deadly trap as Dipper thought. There was a tiny sparkle of hope in his heart. Maybe he could do it on time.

'Take them there, now!'

Geek started to gather the boys around him and led them to half-forgotten corner of room. Dipper could actually see the door, just as dirty as the wall, and a massive lock on it.

' Descendere spiritus, quod locus est et adiuvare digneris inportunitatem!' He shouted, and the little girl's ghost came immediately. It was low-class, it had no other choice.

'There's a way out, to garden, right?'

'Yeah' She replied, eyes wide open. She was looking at the demon over Dipper's shoulder.

'Focus!' He ordered 'Where's the key?!'

A key levitated as girl flight to an old wardrobe and pulled it out from between old, half-rotten clothes. 'Give it to the boy with glasses! Now!'

He was slowly releasing the barrier as boys started to run out. Daniel was talking with the demon, but he couldn't hear the words. That must've been some kind of magic. Greg looked out of the secret corridor. 'Come on! Dipper! Leave Daniel! Run!'

And for a second he wanted to run away with boys and never ever see this house again. What kind of person would attempt a suciside mission to save almost a stranger from demons claws, knowing almost certainly that he's gonna die? Hey, a normal, rational person would never do this, right? But he knew he has already made his choice. Who? He would.

'Go without me!' Dipper shouted and released the barrier, running into green flames.

Greg hesitated for a few seconds, but smoke and fire caused him to close the door. He was too much of a coward. He could feel the tears gathering in his eyes, as he ran away from that damned mansion. 'Please, don't die, both of you' he whispered, he could feel stings of remorse, but at the same time he was happy he escaped.

Inside of the basement Dipper was running through a sea of green flames. He felt like he wan't getting closer at all. Daniel and the demon were just out of his reach, but now he could hear them speaking.

'So you r-reveal my sister b-back from the d-dead and I will g-give y-you a p-p-puppet.'

'DO WE HAVE A DEAL?' The demon asked in this damn, well-known for Dipper manner. It lifted up one of it's hand-paw and a new green fire burned on it.

'NO!' Dipper shouted and jumped, as Daniel raised his hand. Dipper bumped into him and they felt through green flames into corner of the room. 'Don't do this! He's gonna do something terrible! Like kill your sister again by your hands! He will posses you!'

'Dipper' boy's voice lowered and the stammering faded away like it never been there.'You have no idea what you're doing'

'Even if so I want to save you...' He mumbled a spell that pinned the boy to the ground.

He ran again to the demon. He just had to get rid of it, before any deal is done. He'll make sure tht Daniel won't do it again. Or he will die. The second version was more likely.

He got swallowed in the ocean of green flames, that weren't hot anymore. If he would call the sensation, it was sticky. Just like the fire was dirty, and left something on his skin. 'Gross' he tought. And then he herd the voice. Not an angry groan, but a soft, sweet tone, just like honey.

'Oh, what do we have here? A Bill Cipher victim, I see... He must've hurt you badly... He left his mark on you...'

Dipper growled as he didn't know where the voice came from. But the words moved something within his soul... His head started to get heavy, as the voice pour the bittersweet poison of words.

'Don't you want to get him back for this? Don't you want him to pay? If you want to get rid of a demon, you need to make a deal with other... A tiny deal... A favor from you, for parting the Triangle Guy into atoms for whole eternity...'

His head was spinning. He felt like he drunk too much, just like he did when he mistook lemonade for a cocktail. He wasn't sure what he's doing.

A dark paw-hand reached for him, and a green flame appeared.

'Do we have a deal...?' the soft voice asked.

His lips spoke itself.

'Yes...'

Dipper slowly raised his hand...

 

Since that day Mabel had not seen her twin brother. Parent's weren't worried, they were repeating that Dipper is studying abroad, but asked about the details, they would just give her an empty look. Her heart was torn apart. Dipper disappeared. Now, after five long years, she was going to see him again at the mysterious town of Gravity Falls. She didn't knew that the man she's gonna find is not anymore her younger brother... And what he became is more scary than she could imagine in worst nightmares.

 


	2. What has remained

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's back

When the bus came to Gravity Falls a strange passenger, who was sitting in the back, stood up. Other people shivered, as he walked past them, and hopefully waited for him to leave the vehicle. The man was tall and rather muscular. He was wearing a pitch-black coat, dark pants and green gloves with black stripes. On the dark shirt hung a necklace made of few stones with runes, and in the middle of it there was a metal ring with a pine tree shape inside. On his long, tangled, dark brown hair was a navy green hat.

But not the way he dressed, and not even a strange looking luggage in an unusual shape was the cause of people's fear. That was the aura surrounding him. Dark, gloomy, doom-calling. Every since he got on the vehicle the air felt heavy, hard to inhale and somehow sticky, just like there was some kind of poison in it. And _he_ was the cause. He felt _toxic,_ just as if he was carrying a disease, spreading it around. No one was brave enough to speak to him, and even if someone tried, he would get frozen by the glare of the stranger. He took over the back seat, and hid his face in the shadow. Even the bus driver didn't bothered him with questions about the ticket. _He can't be human_ he thought.

Now, as weirdo was leaving, everyone felt refreshed. He got out in silence, and when the bus door closed, the passengers slowly started talking. The atmosphere got back to normal, tough the sour taste of the air remained for a few hours. But as time passed, the memory faded. That was just some kind of weird guy, like lots of other in this world. Him being some kind of monster? No way.

Only a little girl sitting in the third row stared trough the window, wondering why no one had seen the green flames that were burning on stranger's necklace.

Meanwhile the passenger stood on the Gravity Falls old, demolished bus stop, checking the atmosphere around. The air was filled up with magic, he could almost _see_ it pulsating around. Great. It was more than enough for his purpose. Choosing this town was a perfect guess.

He smiled a wild and sharp predator's smile as he walk to the city center. His name was Dipper Pines. For now, at least.

 

This definitely wasn't Robbie Valentino's best day in life. Actually, it was in top ten worst days list. His girlfriend just dumped him and he felt into a big, muggy pond. The guy who tried to help him, turned out to be a thief and stole his wallet. Now he was wet, angry, without any money and no will of coming back home and meeting his all-cheerful parents. As years passed they were getting more and more cheerful and happy. That was annoying him like hell.

All of the those things made him irritated enough to shout at every person that he'll see. But because of the late hour he hadn't met anyone at the streets. It was getting darker. He wasn't paying attention to where he was going and so he bumped into some strange guy, who was heading to the town center. It felt like man appeared from nowhere. He was too angry to think.

'LOOK WHERE YOU GO, YOU FUCKER!' he yelled at the man, tough it was Robbie who clashed into him.

Stranger slowly turned around and Robbie gasped as he met guy's glare. This day just jumped into first place of worst-days-ever list. Stranger's eyes were at the craziest shade of green he could imagine, and the color was somehow... pulsating. Guy's face would be nice, even handsome, if not a wide, crooked smile full of teeth a bit too sharp to be human. Robbie knew there was something weird going on in Gravity Falls, but he wasn't expecting someone like... this. Most of the town was safe, the place you should not go was the woods, or old McGucket 'house'. Also there were a few abandoned and haunted places, but all that wasn't too serious stuff. This guy was beyond Robbie's abilities. Something in him felt broken and _definitely not_ human _._

'I...I'm sorry...' Valentino mumbled, under the cold, but burning look of the stranger. He stepped back, but froze at an angry grimace that replaced the smile.

Stranger was examining him from head to toe with focused expression. Robbie was wearing a black, leather jacket, with his sign, a bleeding heart with a wound through the middle, on his back. Underneath he had a black t-shirt with a skull, a tight, black jeans with a lot of chains hanging between belt and his pocket. He also wore a grey converse shoes. His hair was messy and spiky, now, that he had cut it shortly. Valentino had highlighted his eyes with a black eyeliner. He wasn't handsome in a way, but he also wasn't that ugly.

Then stranger's eyes widened as he recognized the person. Robbie took another step back, looking for a way out. The weird man was few inches taller than him and had longer legs. He also seemed agile and fast, used to fight and run. Stranger's pupils narrowed and his eyes were glowing green. The weirdo tilt his head a bit, but he hadn't stopped staring. Then he's face lightened up with a smile. Just as sharp and crooked as the last one, and he let out a crazy chuckle. Robbie thought that he's gonna die. He closed his eyes.

'Hey... Don't you remember me, Robbie?' The man asked and his voice sounded surprisingly soft and calm, completely opposite to the insane laugh from a second ago. There was also a dash of something familiar in guy's tone, just like young Valentino heard it before. He opened his eyes and met this green, creepy glance.

'H-how do you know me?' He stammered a little, and his voice cracked in the middle of sentence.

'Oh, so you don't! Memories are not reliable!' The guy turned right and raised his hand to his jaw, in gesture of thinking intensively. It all felt unnatural, overdone, like he was playing a role in the theater. He was still observing black-haired man with the corner of his eye. 'Let's see...'

'I know!' he turned back, jumping from fake excitement as some idea ''came'' to his mind.'Maybe the fact, that you used to hate me after I ended your relationship with Wendy back then, will refresh your memory!'

'Wendy...' Robbie crossed his brows and thought for a moment. But the only answer he had was just too crazy to even consider it. His eyes widened 'You can't be...'

'Dipper Pines, at your service!' Stranger exclaimed and sarcastically bowed, taking his hat of, and putting it back with a flip. 'Took you long enough, Bleeding Heart'

Valentino was speechless. How this insane, dangerous (oh, yeah, he had no doubt about this guy being dangerous) weirdo could be the small, jumpy lover of conspiracies he saw a few years ago? Okay, after all, Dipper was brave. After he fought the monsters he became not bad at fights and toughen up. He was also quite smart one, Robbie had to admit it. But Dipper was naive and shy, a nerd. He just couldn't be this demon-like being. He wasn't this... _evil_. He wasn't evil even a little bit! And all the black-haired man could see in the weirdo's eyes was death, doom and evil amusement.

'So... uh... what do you want?' He asked, trying to cool himself. Now he saw that... _Dipper..._ had black backpack and a suitcase in a strange shape. 'They wouldn't let it in at any airport' he thought. Robbie stared at brunette, now that he wasn't showing his teeth in the smile, and found similar parts. His face was more masculine copy of his sister's face, that Valentino saw few days ago, as she came back to Gravity Falls. Guy's figure wasn't that ''packed up'' as he though at first. And his voice really was Dipper. Other signs were a bit of birthmark (he saw it accidentally, when Wendy messed up boys hair, and he was spying at her) and a piece of a certain journal that Dipper used to carry everywhere. No, wait, this one was different. Instead of an odd hand it had a gold pine tree, with a '4' written on it. But it was certainly the same style.

'I just came to say ''Hi'' to everybody, before I go to the Shack. But I guess you're the only one around... So I'll just wander through the city to see what's changed' now he smiled so sweet that it made Robbie sick.'If you need something, find me. Maybe we could get a nice _deal..._ '

Valentino shivered as the strange man clamming he's Dipper lowered his voice to a hiss at the last word.

''Dipper'' walked away slowly, hands in his pockets, humming some kind of melody. Young undertaker recalled it as the one he hated on funerals. He quietly sang the chorus to himself.

''And may the angel's guide you to Heaven

And may you stand before the God

He's gonna send you where you belong

And you will go on with the sacred

The ones you love will head right after

Or you'll be damned and burn for long

No one will cry over a dirty soul...''

He knew what he had to do. He rushed, praying for the weirdo to get lost. In both meanings.

 

Mabel Pines was happy. Well, as happy as she could be after dippearance of her brother. She sold a lot of stuff at the Mystery Shack's store. After she finished designer's school, she projected a lot of new things to her Grunckle's shop. She also came up with a website page for selling things online and advertisement. The page was a bit messy and chaotic, but girl made it herself. It worked really well, she sold a huge amount of gadgets online and now she could see the business moving, as the people who bought the items wanted to see the place where those came from.

With Wendy studying in California and Soos staying in Canada for three months with his wife (They were actually getting ready for Melody to move to Gravity Falls), Mabel and Stans hardly managed to get the trips and the shopkeeping done. Children loved Mabel's trips(adults were coldly amused and teenagers hated it), but Stanley wasn't as young as he used to be nine years ago and he had problems with getting more than two trips a day, he though about retiring to Florida or somewhere, however he couldn't left the girl on her own.

Stanford was in a better condition, but during the tours he often got distracted, stopped to write down some idea or just forgot what he was talking about. Also he had a few 'paranoid' incidents when he panicked during the tour as he saw something in the woods. But after being somewhere in other dimension for thirty years his paranoia was totally understandable. That's why Ford was the main shopkeeper. He could write as much as he wanted to, even if he got distracted or forget the subject, he could always ask for repetition and all the prices were on the stuff, so didn't have to remember them.

She sighted, looking trough the window, at the upcoming storm. He wanted Dipper to come back. And she wished that they had more people to employ...

But you have to always watch out what you wish, because it can come true anytime...

 

Someone was knocking the door. Mabel was about to go to bed, as she turned off all lights and closed everything up, because of a predicted storm. But before she got upstairs to attic, where she slept, someone knocked. It was a panicked, quick, but hard knock. Somebody wanted badly to get in the Shack. Mabel rushed to the door, but Stanley got it first. He pointed a gun at the door.

'Lee!' Mabel hissed, because she was sure she got every single weapon out of his room 'What the heck are you doing? Put the gun down! How did you got it, anyway?'

He ignored her, still aiming at the door. Stanford came along with sleepy eyes. He had a teaser. 'And you to, Brute, against me?' Girl thought.

'Who's there?' Gruncle asked with a strong voice.'Name yourself!'

'It's Robbie' someone said with a cracking voice 'Robbie Valentino! Please let me in, before he comes! I need to speak with you!'

Stans nodded their heads, but kept the weapons in reach. Ford opened the door, and slid on a side of it, just like he was expecting an attack. Oh, right, he was, Mabel realised. But the only thing they could see was a panicked young man. Valentino quickly stepped in and closed the door.'He's coming!' he shouted before he could stop himself.

'Robbie, calm down and explain properly' Mabel took care of the boy, speaking slowly 'Who's coming and why are you so scared?'

'Dipper' All three gave him confused look 'Dipper is coming' he repeated. Mabel wanted to hug him tight and do the craziest happy dance ever danced, but Robbie's expression stopped her.

'Dipper... is coming?' she asked in a dull voice, feeling the joy being burned out of her. Why anyone would get scared of her twin brother? The black-haired undertaked gave her a grave-heavy look, full of pity.

'Dipper... Or at least what has remained of him.'

Another person knocked the door hard, just like it was going to break them, Stans both aimed their weapons, not sure if they could shoot if that was Dipper behind it.

'Too late...' Valentino whispered and turned more pale than usual, what seemed impossible a second ago. Mabel crossed her shoulders and her eyes glowed in a crazy shade of pink. She was ready for everything that was gonna break in. First drips of rain bangled the roof, and then everything went white as a lightning flashed.

The door flew through the room, knocked out of the frame, and they missed the girl by millimeters, but she didn't move. With burning eyes and his necklace on fire, there was her brother creeping out of storm. Or what has remained of him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure if I used some idioms right way... If I messed up, please point it out...  
> And well... i'm not sure where this is going too... It wasn't supposed to be this dark...


	3. A dirty soul

When they were looking at each other, Mabel and Dipper Pines looked even more similar. Twins were both tall, slim with a slight, but visible musculature. Their hair was the same dark- brown color, and they faces were almost identical, but girl had longer lashes and her facial features were less sharp and more human. They stared at each other for a while, young man's necklace still burning with green flames.

Then Dipper grinned, the same scary, crooked fake smile. Mabel looked at him, her eyes burning pink as her magic had awaken. She could see her brother's aura being slowly burnt by Hellfire. Brown-haired man eyes were empty, like there was no one inside.

'Long time no see, sis' He said with a familiar, but dull voice, without any emotions. 'I was expecting you to be here'

'Your eyes are green' She said with an accusatory tone, as her own glowed even more, getting ready to put up a barrier. Last time she'd seen Dipper's eyes, they were brown.

'And yours are pink' He answered calmly.

Stans looked at them in confusion. They weren't sure if they should shoot Dipper-demon immediately, or just get him with teaser. Ford thought that young man must be possessed, and his brother wondered if Dipper went insane. Both had a point. Valentino couldn't think about anything except Mabel lasting the weiro's glare, and even looking at him with anger. That was beyond his understanding. How a small, fragile girl could not get scared? But it was Mabel. After all she never really had self-preservation instinct...

As they stared, unsure what to do, the silence was broken only by the rain and a single thunder. Lightnings flashed one after another. 'Whe isn't he attacking?' Stans wondered. Then Mabel moved. The girl headed towards her twin without even a blink of fear. She stopped just before the man, examining him from head to toe. The green flames went down as she came closer. Mabel was a few inches shorter.

'You got tall...' Her voice softened. Dipper just gave her an emotionless glare. He seemed bored. And empty. Like something was missing inside of him. The dark aura in the room got countered with all-shiny aura of Mabel, and there was a neutral harmony.

Suddenly, girl slapped the man so hard that his head bounced left. His hat fell to the ground. Dipper's fringe hid his eyes. Stans and Robbie were terrified, they didn't see that one coming.

'That's for leaving me without a word' she said with an ice-cold voice, that she learned from Pacifica.

'And that's because you came back' The girl hugged her twin tight enough to break bones. He obediently let her do it. Dipper's look was far away. A red mark grew on his cheek.

She let him out of her arms and stepped away, tears in her eyes. Dark-haired man gived her another passionless glare. Numb like he got a shot of tranquilizers, he couldn't opose. 'That must've been some kind of spell' Dipper thought. Mabel had to cast it before he came. It was kind of magic the necklace couldn't protect him of. Faerie magic. Or gods' magic. Or both. He wanted to get angry, but it took too much effort. His head was heavy.

'Today you'll sleep on a couch in the living room' Mabel spoke softly and slowly, like she was explaining something to a child. 'Tomorrow we will clean up some room for you.'

He nod his head, he couldn't resist. He slowly walked to the couch, fighting with every step, dropping his luggage on the way. He had to put himself together! But he was soooo sleepy... He had to make that silly girl bleed and scream. Maybe tomorrow... Who she even was to embarrass him like this? But he wasn't angry. 'Wait, that's my sister!' He shouldn't hurt her... But a little lesson of respect hadn't killed anyone...yet, at least... He actually could let her have this one... He'll get her later... He'll...

The thought decomposed as he felt into the dream, falling asleep as soon as he touched the couch. The spell bounded him to his body, so he couldn't escape to Mindscape and for the first time in five years Dipper immersed himself in a real dream.

Mabel faltered and she had to hold the kitchen shrank to keep herself up. The spell drained out of her a lot of energy, but should eliminate Dipper's bloodlust for some time... Though it's just temporary help. He knew what was going on and she didn't like it. At all. She had to find a way out of this mess...

She stared at the water flowing inside the Shack through the broken down door. She mechanically waved her hand and it flew back to the frame. The lock closed itself and the mess disappeared. She took her seat at the kitchen table next to Robbie and her eyes stopped to glow. But they were still pink. Stanford looked at her with eyes wide open and his jaw dropped. Lee wasn't surprised, he had seen that one coming, with all his theories and paranoia there was no way she could hid anything from him. Robbie was just speechless trying to proceed what the hell has just happened.

'I think you all deserve an explanation...' she started 'So i'll give you the shortest one I can. Robbie, since we departed the Blind Eye Society nine years ago you should realize that in this town is something weird going on, don't you?'

He nodded, still not able to speak.

'Gravity Falls is kind of ''hot point'' where all the paranormal gathers, because the border between our and other dimensions is the thinnest. There are a few places like this in the world. Most of them is in the Europe, you need something really terrible to happen to destroy the barrier between here and Mindscape, a kind of neutral space, which lays between dimensions and may be visible in all, but it's not physical. Like, you cannot touch it.'

Robbie actually got lost after the whole 'other dimensions' thing, but he nodded. Stans knew that part, Ford actually knew it even too good...

'I was using magic just now, to ensure Dipper wouldn't hurt anyone and to fix the damn door. I'm tired... That sleeping spell was hard... I was studying magic since he disappeared. That's why I have pink eyes. Those are no lenses. And ya' know what? Magic just as fucking awesome as I imagined! And I am gonna get a unicorn!'

Everyone stared at her with skeptic look.

'Ekhem, I just got out of the theme... Yeah, I was studying faerie magic.'

'And what about Dipper?' Stanford asked 'He got possessed?'

'No...' Her eyes darkened as she looked back to what she saw in his aura. 'Worse...'

'Just say it' Stanley nagged 'I wanna know what the hell has happened to this boy' Robbie nodded. He didn't actually knew what's going on, but he wanted the truth. Ford bit his lips. He had some suspicions, but he didn't wanted them to turn out true.

'I have to start from the beginning.You can divide demons in many different ways from the nature of their power to their form they get in our realm' that sounded like a part of book, the sentence was build completely not Mabelish. Actually it was a page from one of Dipper's books that she flipped through so many times she couldn't even say how many.'But one of it is especially interesting. Demons can be: Created, Born or Changed. Created demons are the beings that were formed along with angels, but betrayed the God. Demon is Born when other demons' fused their powers and made other one, as they wished it to be. And the Changed formerly were humans who got too involved with black magic or made a bad deal... If a wizard squeezes in his body white and black magic, it starts to burn with Hellfire. In any case for a few years a person's soul is getting burned and this one is driven insane... As his soul is burned he losses all the emotions and becomes a demon... And that's what happened to Dipper...'

Three men were watching Mabel in disbelief, waiting for her to get her usual smile back and shout out that they took the bait and that was just a prank, but nothing of this happened. She looked tired and hopeless.

'How much time does he have til.. that happens?' Ford was first to cool and start thinking.

'At the stage he is now...A month, maybe less...'

They were pretty short in time... He decided to get his research started right out.

'Can we somehow... reverse the process?' Stanley asked with cracking voice.

'As far as I know... There is no cure... Also he already started to lose his mind... He would behave normally, then like a psycho, in phases... And it would only get worse... The moments of clarity will be shorter and shorter...' She couldn't speak any further, her voice cracked and tears that she was holding back for so long appeared in her eyes. Her always-cheerful act dropped. She curled herself up on the chair- knees to her chest.

'I imagined him coming back hating me... I imagined him coming back possessed, beaten, paranoid. I imagined him dead or never coming back. Or lost in the Mindscape... But it is worse than all the things I could imagine... I never considered it real...'

The tears dripping from her face, Stanley put his hand on her shoulder, Robbie clenched her arm. Only Ford was lost in thoughts. He rubbed his forehead and stepped up to Mabel.

'Hey, Mabby, it'll be all right.' He said softly 'We'll find out what happened to him and if there is a way to reverse the process we'll certainly find it. But we need more time.' He lifted up girl's face. 'Now, focus, do you remember any way to stop or slow it down?'

She thought for a moment.

'Well... There might be a way...'

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What the hell is with those notes? I can't delete the not from chapter 1!  
> Okay, you see, i'm gardener-like kind of writer. I plant a seed in the ground and grow it... But i don't know if it would be a rose or a man-eating plant...


	4. Rather feel pain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper comes back to normal... as far as he can

When Dipper finally opened his eyes, they were in a color that people would consider normal, between blue and green. He looked around with confusion. Was that... Memories of yesterday came to him shattered to pieces... He had another attack... But he was here, in Gravity Falls... He could finally start the plan. If it works out, he will get back to normal. His soul will regenerate... He stood up, feeling the headache. Flicks of dreams messed into memories and he couldn't part one with another. There was a reason for which he ran into Mindscape every night, he just couldn't stand what was in his own head. He closed his eyes and got into Mindscape, as the spell wan't holding him anymore. He could completely understand Shooting Star using magic on him. He was actually glad that she could defend herself and others... There were Fez and Hand, weren't they? And Bleeding Heart...

His dreamform spread it's pitch black wings, torn and burned, with green flames slowly consuming it. He examined them. The necklace was doing it's work just right, slowing down the process, but it couldn't stop it completely. He was running out of time. Who knows when there will be next ''attack''? As far as he could predict, it would happen in one and a half week. And it would last longer, about twenty hours. He stood up, his wings wide and he flew.

There were this tracks all over the Mindscape version of city. Burning blue-fire marks. There was the Triangle Guy, who turned out to be Dipper's last hope. He sighed. Someone had summoned Cipher, and that's why he couldn't find the demon. If he was in his realm completely, then Dipper would sense him and track him down. Now that was impossible. He sighted. Still had about a week, but if he would be forced to summon him, it could end up pretty bad. Every spell was making the burn worse and may cause the attack.

As he was returning to his body he saw Shooting Star trying to shake him awake. She was freaked out, as she thought that her spell had done damage to him. His body was in a special hibernation, temperature lowered, pulse almost stopped, and his barriers were put up, blocking way into the body for anyone except for him. Slightly amused he eyed Mabel's pink, sleeveless sweater with ''Girl of your dreams'' written in silver, glittering letters. He got back to his welcoming body.

'Dipper! Dipper! Wake up, please!'

He opened his eyes, feeling dizzy and heavy, like always did when he came back from Mindscape.

'Calm down, women!'- he exclaimed, as he crawled out his sister's arms. She smiled with relief and let go of him.

'You're fine...?'

'How I'm supposed to be after this spell you threw on me?'

'I'm sorry, but you...'

'I know, you did right.' He said 'I could even kill you or something...'

They stared at each other for a while, the awkward silence filled the room. But they both felt good, having their sibling near. Actually even only Shooting Star's presence seemed to put the fire down a little. Something has returned. Dipper felt relief, she was okay, both Stans were alive and well too, as much as he could tell from yesterday memories. Actually the only ones he thought about for those five years were people from Gravity Falls. He smiled a litte, but it was unnatural. He didn't have many opportunities to smile... at least when his mind was clear.

Mabel wanted to scream. And laugh. And dance. And hug her brother, yelling and going crazy. And promise him that they'll find a way to reverse the burning and save him. She couldn't do the last part, but as for the rest, she couldn't hold back. She was never really good at self-control.

After she finished the greetings, she tugged him to the kitchen, where Stans were eating the most shiny, glittering and rainbow-y breakfast Dipper could imagine. By those years Gruncle Stan got older, and developed new wrinkles, but he still hold on unexpectedlly good for his age. Grandpa looked like he used to before, just his hair was got all grey. He seemed tired, like he stayed awake whole night, and was drinking a big cup of coffee.

Dipper stood there for a second, suddenly feeling like he was a twelve-years-old again. He looked at Fez, expecting a scolding, but old man's eyes were warm and welcoming. Stanford stood up and squeezed him in a short hug, what surprised the boy. Then he play-punched him. That was more Stan-like.

'Nice to see you again. You're a man now.' He said with a smirk 'But ya'know, a postcard time to time hadn't killed anyone so far'

'Yeah' He replied with a tiny smile.'I'm sorry...'

'What passed is gone, Dipdop' Mabel grinned widely. Her smile was stunning now, that she didn't had the braces.'Let's eat'

Dipper wondered if he should say hi to Grandpa too, but the six-fingered man was completely lost in thoughts, and it seemed that he hadn't noticed Dipper's presence at all. Stanley was writing something down, and he barely touched any food. Then he stood up without a warning, took his books from the table and went to his room, grabbing a whole pot of coffee. Dipper stared at the place Lee disappeared.

'Don't mind him' Mabel said with a clear voice 'He's got like... a lot of on his plate right now. He's kind of in his own world. He often leaves without a warning when some idea comes to his mind'

'Okay' Dipper answered, but the breakfast didn't look that shiny anymore. What was actually not bad.

Just as he expected, all the stuff on the table was sweet, fluffy and surprisingly eatable. His sister wanted to give him famous ''Mabel juice'', made but a new recipe, but he declined, not really sure if he wants to face the mixture. He had a cup of tea, with ''A little honey'', what meant there was more honey than actual coffee, but he didn't complain. It was nice and lazy, and familiar, as he tried to catch up at what happened in Gravity Falls since he left.

Old McGucket was dead. That information shocked him, but it he should expect it. That guy was in his nineties about ten years ago, but he seemed pretty lively. They found him after over a week, when his son realized he hadn't seen his father making mess anywhere for that long. A few people tried to explore the place he lived, but there was a lot of dangerous machines.

Candy and Grenda still lived in Gravity Falls, as well as Pacifica. But they weren't there at the moment. Chiu went on some con to get the newest and spiciest romance novels. Grenda was away in Austria, visiting her boyfriend baron whatever-his-name-was. Pacifica became Mabel's friend, as Shooting Star put out of the ice queen all humanity she could. She wasn't like other Northwests at all. Robbie (yes he was here, we got him home, he's fine, but scared, he's not that bad as you remember, still has a terrible character, but he's more neutral) was working as an undertaker with his parents and at weekends played in a band. Question Mark was with Melody, Wendy at the university. The worst thing about the city was that Gideon still lived there with his father (his mother passed away) and everyone forgot what he did years ago, and he was again the town idol (such a _wonderful_ young businessmen). There were new cops assigned to Gravity Falls, as previous ones retired, but they weren't even a bit more clever. Also this weird government agency decided that this town was too much for them to handle after they lost three tanks, eight helicopters, seventeen trunks, twenty-nine cars and a whole train with railway in the woods. But they didn't get destroyed, but just lost. Like... they looked away for a second and it faded in the air. So the life in this town was just as paranormal as it used to be, and with people remembering the weird things, most of them just adapted to ''new'' reality.

And there were newcomers. Two of them seem really interesting since they were about the same age as Dipper and Mabel. They names were Coraline and Norman. Boy couldn't help but smirk at the second one. He could still remember clearly how it ended with the last _Norman_ when they were twelve. Mabel announced that those two are coming today, since she invited them almost a week ago. Pacifica was supposed to come too. And Candy, with a bunch of very _interesting_ books. Dipper was about to skip to the forest, but his twin just didn't let him leave. After a lot of nagging, humming, complaining and begging, he promised that he will stay and even took a shower and changed his clothes (what happened really rarely). He tried to get a hold of his wild bedhead (maybe he should go to the hairdresser? Nah, he wasn't there in like, five years, he could hold it) His hair was quite long, nothing compared to Mabel's, but it ended about four inches under his shoulders. He clipped it into a low ponytail.

He examined himself in mirror. He looked just fine. Maybe except for the fact, that out of all creatures he resembled a vampire the most. His fringe was messy and getting into his eyes, but hiding the birthmark. Dipper cut it himself, so no wonder it looked negligently. He tried to smile, but the only grimace he could get was this crazy, crooked smile showing all teeth. They started to sharpen about three years ago and now looked just horrifying. He cut his long, claw-like nails. He hated to actually _see_ the transformation.

As for clothes wore a black T-shirt, navy blue jeans and a combat shoes. He hid the necklace under the shirt. After a moment of hesitation he put on a dark blue hoodie matching the pants. It was warm, but he decided to hide his tattos. He especially didn't want Mabel to see one of them, spelled with dark, gothic letters down his left arm ''TRUST NO ONE''. She wouldn't like it. Besides, that one was the only non-magic one.

When Dipper got down he saw a familiar blue and white thing lying at the top of hid luggage. His Pine Tree hat. He couldn't help but smile. That must be Mabel's work. He picked it up and realized that the cap is bigger, it actually was big enough to wear for him. He immediately put it on, before processing what he did. He looked at himself, a loompy vampire. What was he doing? Dipper got angry at himself. That was just ridiculous. He threw the cap on the couch decided not to wear it, but he also couldn't left it.

Mabel was setting up everything.

'Hey, Dipdop!' She yelled 'C'mere!'

'What?' He asked, unconsciously putting on the cap while and walking into kitchen.

'Wow, bro-bro!' She exclaimed 'You look like... a human!'

'Don't be so concerned, sis! I am a human' He smirked a bit, but then he mumbled 'At least for now...'

Mabel pretend not to hear the last part. She was thinking over the plan again. It was quite simple: You can slow down the process of becoming the demon by _feelings,_ any feeling is good. Shame, anger, hapiness, sadness, even pain. As long as the person is human, rather feels pain than nothing at all. But the best feeling for this, most overwhelming is _love_. And by chance she had a few drips of a love potion (stolen from a certain god) left. Eternal love. She just needed her brother to fall in love and the process will get stopped. And she didn't wanted him to be hurt, so she just had to make sure the person will love him back. Candy and Dipper, that was a perfect matchmake. So she very carefully divided the remaining potion and put it into two cups of Mabel juice, that she was going to give everyone.

'Oh, I thought about a room for you and I found one! We are gonna clean the one that wax figures were standing in. It's pretty big, and if we get a bed and few other things it's gonna be just as nice as your old one!' she cheered 'I'll help you decorate!'

'Absolutely _not_ ' he protested 'It'll end up pink and girlish!'

'No worries, bro-bro, you have a graduated designer before you!'

'And that's what I fear' He laughed, but he stopped at the moment he started. His laugh was awful, and even he could hear that. It sounded completely _insane._ Maybe the vocal chords haven't got used to the fact, that it wasn't his demonic part laughing. The awkward silence filled the kitchen, as Mabel got back to work. Boy decided to help his twin.

He took the knife and then it happened again. He gasped as another part of his soul got bit by the flames. His eyes turned completely green. How come this happened so fast? Was that another attack? Everything felt unreal like a dream. Scared look that Mabel gave him. Knife in the hand. Kitchen table. His body. For a second all this felt unreal, like it was far away. He lifted hand with the tool and stabbed hard the other. For a second he got scared, but the nerves sent the signal. The pain came, bittersweet taste of it. It hurt, but he could feel it, that wan't an attack, just regular burning. He smiled.

Now, after all this years he could understand why demons thought pain was hilarious. That was the feeling you could easily cause, you just had to damage your body. For the ones that never felt anything even an unpleasant thing like this was still a feeling. He stretched his hand, causing the blood to flow faster and got another wave of pain in response. The fact that he could feel the it, ment he was still human. He would rather feel pain than nothing at all.

Mabel stared at her brother in disbelief. He just stabbed his own hand with a kitchen knife and smiled at what he did. This was getting worse. She had to react quick.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Three Days Grace song called Pain inspired me to do this... If you can hear it! Really good one ;P


	5. Don't play with love cause you will fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mabel has a plan...

Time till passed quickly and the guests arrived. A bit gothic girl with short hair arrived first with a wide, completely not gothic smile. Her clothing style was dark, but cute in a way that only girl could get out of emo. She wore black, torn and tight pants. Over it had a short, checked, black and red skirt. She had also a dark shirt with a red necklace matching the skirt. On top she wore a black leather jacket. She smiled and gave Mabel a plate of cat-shaped cookies. Dipper just smiled, trying out the expression on people, and left all the talking to his twin, what she was handling perfectly fine, as expected.

The chat was going well and it was actually about nothing. Where are you from, how do you like Gravity Falls and stuff. The girl was really clever, she found out something strange was going on in this town, but she couldn't explain what. It was more like she could _feel_ it. She was twenty-one, a year younger than the twins.

Then Pacifica came with all her purple and expensive clothes, colorful make-up and earrings that were worth about ten times more than anything Dipper bought in his life. She looked stunning. But she wasn't such an ice queen as he remembered her. She hugged Mabel closely, coldly hissed at Dipper (probably for his disappearance) and greeted new girl with warmth he would never expect of her. Pacifica could actually feel the worry under everyday cheerfulness of Mabel. They were friends, after all. But she didn't expected Dipper to be so... gloomy. Like darkness had consumed the person he used to be.

Then came Norman, the first boy and the first one Dipper actually spoke to. When there were girls he only nodded his head time to time and tried not to smile in scary way. When the boy walked in, Mabel couldn't stop herself.

'I'm Mabel Pines!' she couldn't help and added with a chuckle 'Nice to eventually meet a real Norman!'

'Wha...' the boy started, not sure if the person next to him was sane. Someone with this amount of pink and glitter couldn't be normal.

'Nothing' She giggled 'Just an inside joke. If we have time we'll tell you this story.'

Dipper couldn't help himself too and he catch himself at staring intensively at the boy with a slightly crooked smile. He stared because boy's hair were just too weird to pass without a look and he smiled because of poor guy's name, which reminded him of gnomes.

Norman talked a little with girls, but he was getting nervous under Dipper's green-blue glare. Boy was shorter than the twin and more skinny. He also had no muscles. He was wearing a green t-shirt with a ghost on it, brown hoodie, dark pants and track shoes. Maybe on someone else that would look stupidly, but as for him the result was not bad. It went like this for about fifteen minutes before Dipper's curiosity took him over. He stood up and everybody shut up. Mabel, because she wasn't sure if he doesn't get another attack. Pacifica, because Mabel silenced. Coraline, because she wan't sure what the strange twin is up to. Norman, just because he was better with ghosts than humans and didn't know what to say. Dipper walked those few steps and bend over the boy to get to his eye level. Everyone hold their breath. Dipper's eyes turned blue, the same color as the pine tree on his hat, with just a phantom of green. He patted Norman's hair.

'Your hair is denying gravity' He spoke like what he did was a natural thing to do 'That's cool, dude'

A silence was there for a few more seconds before everyone started laughing. They hit it off immediately and started joking.

Chiu got as the last, and handed Mabel a bunch of books full of scary stories and supernatural romances so girly that even the titles made Dipper sick. She grown up to be a pretty, but short girl with long, shiny and straight as a string black hair. She was slim. Candy was wearing same style glasses with elipse-shaped lenses that always matched her. She dressed in a kimono and she looked great in it.

The conversation was getting more interesting as they learned a few things about the newcomers. For example the fact that Norman can see ghosts. Boy was surprised they didn't freaked out, but considered it pretty useful. He told them about the meeting with the ghost-girl who was burned alive and turned out to be a real witch. Coraline told them the story about her last house and the alternative reality run by a monster that she barely escaped. So twins had to also tell a story.

They started with the whole ''Norman'' thing and they moved forward trough what has happened during that eventful summer. They found themselves gesticulating, screaming, and talking with an amazing excitement, with Pacifica and Candy adding things to the stories they lived through with the Mystery Twins. Actually none of the four told a soul about the journal, they didn't knew if they should trust the newcomers that much (And they wanted to very badly) but it was anyway closed up in Lee's room. Out of their reach, as Grandpa seemed not to know what reality he lives in.

They warned them about Gideon, Pacifica's parents (she was the one to warn the most) weird creatures and the demon- Bill Cipher, which was somewhere there, watching for an opportunity to strike. The story about Dipper being possessed gave them a cold shiver.

Then Mabel remembered something and she rum to the kitchen to get the famous Mabel juice. A perfect time for a perfect matchmake. But Dipper followed her, and that was something she didn't consider in the plan. He took the glasses out of the fridge. All drinks got messed up. 'Oh, HOLY SHIT' She thought' Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, Shit, SHIT!'

There wasn't a way to differentiate between the love-drink and normal drink. Both were pink, glittering and shinny. Of course she could throw away the drinks. Oh, fuck this. She thought. Let it be. Then a sudden though hit her. What if she and Dippy were the ones to drank the potion? HELL NO! But as long as there was a 1:3 chance that he will get to love someone, she could fall for anyone. Except for her brother. NOPE! But there was a big chance he's gonna fall in love with Chiu. Or Coraline. Or maybe even Pacifica. She let out a quick pray to the love god, hoping she won't get the potion. Maybe she should drink all the glasses? No matter who she'll fall to, she had this many failed romances she could live with another one.

Mabel Pines was scared. She was rarely scared, after what she'd been through, but there was one thing she couldn't stop fearing. Love. And to be honest ETERNAL love. She had a lots of crushes and she was used to being left alone or dumping people. She had sex with this many boys, that she would be pregnant hundred times if not the faerie magic. The same applies for the sicknesses you can get that way. She would have a complet of all you can get. But the real _real_ love? For ever? That was something that has never happened to her. Summer romances? Yup. Relationships? Yeah. One-night or one-date meetings? Absolutely. Boys, girls, mermaids, vampires, faeries? Don't ask if you don't want to know. Triangles, squares and other figures? That's not a geometry homework. But to LOVE for REAL for a WHOLE ETERNITY? And there was her brother, nooo freaking way.

She sat at the edge of the chair, staring suspiciously at her glass. Was this one with the potion? There was no way to check that. What if she fell in love with Candy? Or Coraline? Or Norman? Actually those options were capable... But Dipper? She decided that if this happens she'll immediately commit suicide by overusing Smile Dip.

'Are you okay?'

'Huh?' Mabel asked, suddenly took out of her gloomy thoughts.

'Coraline asked if you're okay' Pacifica explained with a worried look 'You were silence for, like, two minutes, and we all thought something happened'

'Uh... It's nothing...Lets drink!' She cheered hiding fear under a wide grin.

Everyone stared at her to be first. She almost dropped her glass, hands shaking this badly, that she split part of the drink. Okay, okay, okay, she could do this. She could do this. Mabel took a long sip of the juice. Others followed her.

Nothing happened. She was looking for some reactions, but no one started to kiss in the corner of room or suddenly confessed. The drink went down her throat leaving a nice warmth that after a moment filled her to the fingertips. She looked at Dipper. That's okay. He was just her brother. Nothing changed. Girl eyed the others but she couldn't see any differences. Tough... She never relised Pacifica's hair was so shinny... Really nice. The make-up older girl had today also was cute. And wow, her lashes were just great, long and pitch-black. But Pacifica would look amazingly well even without the make-up. She would like to hug Pacifica and... Wait, what?!

The realization came and hit Mabel like a train. Oh holy shit. Did she just matchmade herself with Pacifica? Maybe a few seconds ago she would be terrified, but this seemed great right now. Pacifica was a good, warm, beautiful girl. A perfect girlfriend.

Blondie's cheeks turned slightly red under Mabel's stare. She nervously stood up.

'I have to go. Sorry. See you around!' And the girl ran out, before anyone could answer.

'I'll go too.' Candy said, taking her books and leaving 'Need to skype Grenda! Bye!'

'What the hell just happened?' Dipper asked, he could feel slight scent of god's magic around.

'Nothin' much, bro' Mabel replied, shaking from the desire to run after Pacifica. And kiss the blond-haired girl's lips. And tell that she love her. But she hold back. Hardly. As the emotions flew, strands of her hair turned pink and eyes started to glow. Dipper was first to notice what was going on.

'Mabel' He hissed 'Get a hold of yourself...!'

But it was too late. Everyone saw Mabel's hair and eyes turning deep pink.

'What the hell?' Norman asked with his usual, calm voice.

'Uhh... That's...' Dipper didn't know what to tell.

'I'm a faerie' Mabel was to concerned about Pacifica to realize what was saying. 'But a real faerie has nothing to do with those funny, tiny fairies someone invented. That's an old, nature-loving, blood-covered race, great fighters and best love magic users in the world. They can't be born or have children, they create a new one from a human, and that's what I am now.'

They stared at her, jaw's dropped open. Dipper thought that his sister just _studied_ faerie magic, not that she actually _became_ one. Coraline blinked a few times.

'That's fine.' She said 'You are so open and you believe in all paranormal things around, so I think I can tell you... I'm a witch.' Corline shown a pill of dark energy in her hands 'I became one and got the black cat as my famulous, after that adventure I had as a child...'

'I'm...' Norman sigted, and gived everyone scared look 'Err... um... Don't freak out, okay? I'm a necromancer.I not only see ghosts. I raise the dead, and for me it's as natural as breathing for you. I can raise a whole cementery if I get scared and I can control my zombies... But normally I don't do this'

'That's okay' Dipper smirked, as he couldn't hold his secret. He lift his hand and a stuffed wolf stood up and jumped on the floor. Everyone gave out a secret, so he could also. 'I'm a wizard. Basically I can do any kind of spell, i'm not a specialized one. Like, I can animate things, go to Mindscape or raise the dead, if needed.' The wolf run around and jumped on the table. Mabel glared fascinated and wanted to touch it.

A sudden pain ran through Dipper's hand and flick of green fire appeared. Hid eyes turned toxic again. Mabel shouted. Stuffed wolf burned with demonic flames.

'Why did you do that?!' Coraline yelled, surprised and afraid.

'I'm sorry...' He hid his hand, now covered with black, burned skinn and green tattoes. Their shape was odd, incomplete and scary. Letters in language of Hell promised something terrible. 'I-i didn't...'

Everyone looked at him with disapproval and fear. He stepped back, ready to run. To leave the Shack and hide in the woods for, like, rest of his life.

'It's okay, Dipdop' Mabel said, her face hid behind her hair. 'It's nothing. Just a stuffed animal'

His eyes were burning. 'It might be you!' Dipper wanted to scream. He turned around and got out of room, feeling terrible. He didn't expected it to be so overwhelming. For those years he barely cared for anything except his own, damned skin. Now, he once again had people to care about and _he_ was the main danger around. He looked at deformed hand with sharp claws. It was slowly getting back to normal, skin healing and crooked green signs straightened slowly to well known magic circles. Enough of fooling around. He had to do it. And if the plan doesn't work... Then he'll leave though the portal. He'll get lost, this time forever. For the ones he love.

 


	6. One step ahead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A cerain bastard is always plotting against the twins...

Next few days passed uneventful. Coraline decided to work at the Shack (Mabel's idea) to run the store (Since Stanley was completely dragged into his latest research and they could only see him grabbing some food or a coffee with not-really-sane glare). Mabel also wanted Norman to work for them, but ghost boy already had a job in Valentino's funeral house. She was wondering where to find more people to run the traps... tours, she meant. Dipper helped her a lot. Girls of all kinds wanted to get on a tour with him, since he looked like a vampire all along. Mabel got him into old-fashioned suit (wonder from what corpse she tore it off?) and a black robe. He thought he looked ridiculous. Girls thought he looked sexy. So he ran tours, showing them fake monsters and telling stories with bored voice.

Also they made a room for him usable and even pretty nice. He got a huge bed that he didn't need, a nightstand, a wardrobe to put unpack his clothed, a desk, an armchair to sit and a book regal, and there was still a lot of free place. Of course all the furniture was old and crappy, found somewhere in the Shack, but he didn't mind it. He thought about getting a sofa or something like this, but he didn't have time, neither money to consider things like that.

Every night he wandered into Mindscape. The burning might be slowed down, but it hadn't stopped. He was looking for that damn dream demon, but either Cipher hid himself or someone got the demon out of realm, probably by making a deal. He was really worried. He had to find Bill in two days. What if anyone knew the spell? That was almost impossible, but his paranoia was speaking.

When it happened Dipper was sitting at the kitchen table with Mabel and Stanford, drinking a cup of coffee. It started with change in natural magic flow. Someone was taking an incredible amount of power. He spread his senses in other dimensions, trying to get the type of magic to deal with. And then the gravity failed.

That could mean only one thing. Someone actually knew the spell. He immediately flew out of his body, not caring about the injures he'll gain when the gravity comes back. Mabel will patch him up afterwards. Or he'll heal it himself, risking another attack. Now he had to find the source of abnormality, the place where magic gathered.

In his dreamform he rushed through the city, not caring about gravitation, since it hardly existed in Mindscape anyway. He saw the cars, road signs and people floating in the air. The people were a shapes of energy, an aura and a soul, though objects weren't this visible, motionless, without magic flow. He looked for eye of cyclone, a place where gravity still hold. There it is. Dipper narrowed his eyes. Clear hate could be read from his face.

'Gideon...' He hissed so much like a snake, that Mindscape around started to shapeshift into one. How it come that sly pig was always one step ahead?

Dipper though for a moment. Either he could go back home, get his body and run to Gideon's place, or make a quick check of what that jerk was doing in his house and then, with a plan teleport to Gleeful's place. He flew through the ceiling, invisible without a vessel and looked around. Nothing.

Then the vibration has come and he suddenly knew where to look. Basement, fucking great. Why all psychos liked basements this much?! There were five people sitting in a Circle. Five wizards, one for every arm of a pentagram. They were incantating in latine, eyes lit, voices filled with fear. Gideon was sitting on a throne-like chair and watched what was happening. He was just as pig-like and fat as like last time Dipper had seen him. He just got bigger- taller, and perhaps even gained some muscles hid under his whiteblue suit. Look what good can prison give to people! His hair was still white, still full of hairspray and looked as idotical as always. It seemed that he hadn't told those wizards about the sacrifice they pay. Now they couldn't stop the ritual. It has to be ended, whether they liked it or not.

Dipper thought for a moment of breaking the ritual. Nah, there would be a mass of demons coming by the ripped ''courtain''- the barrier between worlds. And those people will die anyway. Damned if they do, damned if they don't. That was even worse than Dipper's situation.

Something was getting created, in the middle of pentagram, appearing. The ritual was working. One of the wizard started to burn with blue flames. He couldn't even scream. Scent of burning flesh and tears dripping from his eyes. The indication got louder, none of them could move. This place is going to be cursed for a few thousands of years after they make it(that's why you _shouldn't_ do a black magic circle inside of your god damn house!) And it was just a waste of human sacrifice. If Gideon was a little smarter he could do the ritual by himself and not even burn one person. But rich boy had only the knowledge from journals.

Dipper looked around. He saw a very complicated machine. He flew closer. Oh, dammit. It was just as bad as he thought. Younger boy couldn't cast the draining spell so he got someone- but who? Note to check later- to build him a power draining machine. But he had to bring the source of the power he desired into his dimension. Brunette had seen enough. He knew it'll end up in a huge catastrophe (Just imagine this psycho getting the ability to mess with people's minds!) if no one stops Gideon. And, like always, he's gonna be the one to do it.

Dipper got back to the body, he found himself lying on a sofa. Almost three hours had passed after he went into Mindscape. That should not have happened, but a spell this huge messed up with timeline connection. They probably finished with ritual. That's nothing, power drain is gonna take time. He stood up, walked to get his things and from still not unpacked suitcase he pulled out a gun. Then loaded it. Also he put on a long coat. The spell on top of it made it very resistant to any kind of magic. Dipper took out a sword and headed down to look for a good place to teleport. He was pretty sure that something this huge will cause the attack, so he hadn't told anyone where he goes, nor either that he leaves. He didn't wanted family members to get involved. But Mabel followed him anyway, like The-Hide-Behind disappearing at every glare that was could spot even the tinniest movement of girl.

He set up a quick Circle at the edge of woods, _Me transmite sursum!_ , and disappeared. The trace was still fresh, so brunette went right after her twin brother, not knowing what she will find over the teleport.

 

The basement was dark and the only light source was a creepy glow of the machinery. Multiple led lights were shining faintly, adding lambent shadows all around. Dipper inhaled slowly, feeling the upcoming madness. A shadow within the shadows, he disappeared when Gideon looked around, like he was never there. Five curled-up and dehydrated corpses were lying on the floor, hardly attached jaws opened in a silent scream that'll last forever. Burned and deformed bodies were a pity arousing sight. But the white-haired boy had no feelings towards his former collaborators. Gideon made an impression of a relaxed person, almost like he was sitting at a garden party in some millionaire's place, patiently waiting for the tea, not in a strange basement with a deadly weapon, leaning over few dead bodies. But he was indeed waiting for something. Or someone. On the screen behind him was displayed percent of accomplishment. It showed 74%.

He impatiently looked at the screen, then at the Ring. Complicated machinery covered it all, and a long, thick cables connected it to the screen and a small transparent container, slowly filling with blue flames. Over the middle of the circle there was a man floating, as the gravitation didn't work there. He was slim and rather tall, either extremely pale, or just the ghostly light made his face almost white. Young man could be in his twenties, but didn't seem of age. His hair was gold, too radiant to be called blond, a little messy and spiky. He was unconscious, seemed almost dead. His clothes were absorbing to all interits and purposes. He wore a bowtie, white shirt, a black, sleeveless waistcoat with gold, triangle-shaped buttons, a pair of black material pants and old-fashioned shoes with a small heel. A top hat was hung in the air over his head and a cane floated near.

There was another absorbing thing, a clock. A gold pocket watch on a gold chain, with black like onyx lines, that made a triangle. There was something odd about the light and shades on the item. I seemed to glow itself or rather to reflect with a light from an alternate dimension. And at the same time it felt  _forbidden_ like no one was meant to touch it, because something terrible may happen. Or like it was cursed. Dipper stared at the interesting item, fighting with some strange force pulling him towards the watch. He had to remain calm. And focused. But the clock was calling...

And so did the madness...

His eyes sparkled green, face crooked into a insane grimace, but he managed to get back to control. His right hand ached again, announcing a tranformation. He just need to wait until Gideon drains all power and steal it. He could use it immediately and reverse the burning. Just... wait. 83%

A little... more...

And then he felt a sudden burst of magic, nothing like his quiet teleportation a while ago. It was a hard, angry fairy spell. Oh no. Dipper whined. Mabel followed him. Through the Underworld, where he set up his teleport. If she went through faerie realm, the Three of Life she would manage to get here quick and without problems. But she was forced to go the way he did. Through all the demons and monsters, which ignored him like he was one of them and tried to eat her, since she was a faerie.

She flew out with a half-crazy scream and a few bruises and scratches, closing up the alter-dimension portal. She looked around with confusion. 92% Just... a few... minutes... Don't...

Then Mabel saw Gideon. The rage filled the girl and her eyes and hair glowed deep pink. Long curves floated into air as if they were alive. Maybe they were... Like hell he knew, this faeries...

'Well, well, well... Mabel Pines... So you found out m' li'l... _secret'_ Gideon clapped his hands, slowly and sarcastically, and smiled.'Came again to ruin my plans, marchmallow? I expected you to come, I even want'd to arrange a romantic dinner...'

'Fuck you hard, Gideon!' She yelled 'Where's Dipper?'

'Dipper?' Fake smile got washed away from Gleeful's face as he proceed the words 'Why would you ask me about your stupid brother after all those years?' White-haired boy's eyes widened. 'He's back, isn't he? That would be a thing! Famous Mystery Twins found dead! What a great article will come up tomorrow morning! Cause i'm gonna kill you, _sweetheart_ and you'll be just as dead as your good-for-nothing brother!'

As Gideon was talking it was getting colder and colder. The white frost showed up on the machinery and a ice spread from Gleeful's whereabouts. Mabel wasn't sure what to do. She was looking for Dipper, not able to feel or see his brother's aura. He couldn't leave her here, could he? Dipper was curling up in shadows trying not to lose his mind... at least for next few seconds, his power squeezed and hid within him. 98% Just don't change... Just don't lose control...

Just don't... change...

just don't... 99%

don't...

Too late. He grinned, his mind falling apart. Broken. The dark aura started to fill the room. He jumped from the platform near the ceiling where he had hid himself a while ago. Why should he hide anyway? That sounded like a really stupid idea. His hand ached, but the pain was coming from far away, it didn't bothered him. He kneeled for a moment, and slowly stood up, his head hanged to his shoulder. Salvia slowly dripping from his mouth half-opened in a crooked, crazy smile. _Toxic._ That's how he was. _Toxic._ Eyes burning green, the color coming out as a radioactive mist. _Toxic._ Hand raising like it was hung on puppet strings, a pitch-black, burned skin, and those strange shaped tattoos, promising something hilarious. _Toxic._ Color spread, demonic force transformated the arm to the elbow, sharp claws and thorns piercing the forearm. Blood flow, dripping from shattered parts what was a hand a moment prior. He lit the green fire. _Toxic._

Mabel shouted, tied up by Gideon's spell. The white haired boy was horrified to see his greatest rival like this. Gleeful tried to close Dipper, or the creature that replaced him, in an ice prison spell, but it melted and faded away into a fog. It hadn't even slowed down the demon, the mist gathered around.

Gideon tried to use his telekinesis amulet, but it didn't worked. Brunette laughed. A crazy, cackling laugh filled with pure evil and hate. His wide open eyes didn't need to blink so he stared at the younger boy.

'You really thought you could win with _this...?_ You never got out of those journals, did you?' Scared look Gleeful gave him was a confirmation, what only made Dipper more amused.'There are so many books in this world that contain ancient knowledge and haven't looked into a single of them?You're hilarious'

The Ice Pack probably took it to heart, and wanted to show that he indeed looked into a book or two. In a short burst of anger he threw out a spell. That was a woodoo spell and the necklace couldn't keep Dipper safe from it. But there was no need. Once again he laughed with this insane laugh. The mist keep thicken around him.

'You can't curse me with that, little Glee, if you don't know my real name.'

Gideon frozed. Hid conclusion was that Dipper got possessed and he couldn't harm the body, because there was no soul the attack was meant for. He was almost right. And a sudden though came. He still could win. He only needed to get the drained power. He ran.

Dipper was aware of that. He felt the blue-flame power even from here. He reached out of the fog like a real demon, saliva dripping from his mouth, white part of eyes turned black, what has only exposed the green flame, claws on his fingertips and fangs showed in a crooked grimace hardly similar to a smile. On top of his head there were visible horns. Green fire blocked Gideon's way. And then Mabel broke the bounding spell. No one knew what exploded first, but it caused a chain reaction. Next moments shattered into a blinks of light and scenes frozen in the gasp of moment.

_Mabel floating in the air. Green flames reaching out for Gideon. A scream. Clawed hand clenching on Gleeful's arm. Explosion. Spells flying through the room. Bloodlust. Summoned monster. Faerie fighting with a chimer. A clash of bodies. A not expected flight through basement. Whine of pain. White-haired boy lying in pieces of machinery that sheltered his leg._

_A missed spell that had blown up container with blue flames._

_Suddenly, everything went white._

_Power getting out, all around, running through the veins of the world._

Mabel tried to stood up. That was one hell of unstable magic. It even damaged her aura. She faltered a little, but got a hold of herself, in what mission the nearest wall turned out to be her greatest ally. She looked around. Almost everything got destroyed. She could hear whines full of pain from below a bunch of merchandrise parts. He'll get out somehow. Or not.

Dipper was standing in the middle of the room. His eyes burning, but after the normal harmony got destroyed he was calm, but still not as sane as his twin wanted him to be. He could feel the pain again, bruised and scratched skin. A large wound on his back. The change reversed, normal hand, no claws, no horns. Now, focus. What to do? Your last hope exploded in front of your eyes. Let's get the portal run, for not coming back. He unconsciously stared at the boy still floating in the Ring. The time there wasn't stopped, but the place laid at the edge of dimensions so no harm was done to the Circle and the man inside. No, not man. A demon. A certain dream demon. But what is worth a demon with no power? An idea.

He moved closer to the Circle, feeling it's magic. He stepped into it and then the halfway dimension broke apart and the body felt to his hands. It felt cold. The demon regained conscious for a few seconds. He managed to hide the watch in his pocket. Then focused on the face of the person holding him.

'Pine...Tree...' He whispered softly with numb lips and fainted again.

Dipper looked at him with mix of worry, hate and pity. He was holding the dream demon tight to his chest, one hand under his knees, the other on the back, surprised with how small he felt. Then his eyes got a heavy look when he decided what to do. The teleport he had opened was pitch-black and a bit unstable. After last trip Mabel knew she wouldn't follow him, no matter what. She wondered what his brother wanted to do with that stranger. She picked up the fallen cane and top hat, and she felt a little suspicion works it's way into her head. Blue flames. Cane. Bowtie. Top hat. Gold. Bill?!

Before she could protest her brother and the demon disappeared in the darkness.

 


	7. Roommate (literally) from Hell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mabel's got plans... Big plans  
> So better beware, cause that girl is glittering...

Stanley screamed and dropped the pot of coffee that he grabbed a second ago, struggling to pull out the gun and not to drop any books at the same time, which with only one free hand was quite a mission. The drink splashed on the floor.

'Wha'dahell?!' Asked Grunckle Stan tossing into the kitchen, but as soon as he entered he felt like he lost his voice. His lips moved, repeating the worst sweeps he could remember, but no sound got out. A cup of tea that he was holding smashed on the floor.

'You're wasting a good drink' The cause of Stans' reactions looked at them with irritation.'I wanted to drink that coffee.'

Stanford blinked a few times in disbelief. Well, not everyday you meet a crazy dream demon in a human form, looting your fridge with peaceful face, like it was in it's own house, but Bill thought they were overreacting. And he really wanted to drink that coffee.

He stood, arms filled with food. Cipher needed to feed the meatbag that was his body for now. Demon's eyes were glowing yellow, with gold sparkles all over irises. That was the most inhuman part in him. Bill felt like burning those two annoying humans as they stood, but... His eyes darkened to deep bronze, with only a few yellow sparkles. He had no power at all.

'What are you doing here?! Why are you in human form?! Whose body you stole?!' Lee managed to get out the gun, and put the books on the kitchen table. Now he pointed it at Cipher. 'What are you up to?! What do you want?!'

'Heey, calm down, man' He grinned and reached to the fridge.'As for your first question, i'm here looking for food. The meatbag is so hungry that it hurts. And tough pain is hilarious, I don't want it to die.'

The truth was that him, almost all-mighty dream demon, Bill Cipher, was fucking scared. He was sure, that if he hadn't found bathroom earlier he would wet himself. He didn't got a hold of this weird feeling that fear was, and couldn't react to it properly. His body was shacking, and because loss of powers he couldn't shut down the emotions or part his mind and nervous system. As long as his power was gone, he won't come back to Mindscape, so if this body dies he had no idea what will happen. He lacked knowledge and that scared him. Demon decided to play on the cool act. His stomach tightened in a spasm. Not sure if it was from fear or from hunger, Bill packed his mouth with some kind of human food. He chewed, trying to eat out his worries. And who knows? Maybe that would do the trick, if not two big troubles standing at the kitchen door.

'Answer properly or I'll fucking kill ya'!' Stanford yelled 'What the fuck are ya' doin' in my fuckin' house?!'

'That'h a loth of sweepsh, man' He mumbled and swallowed. The food was...good.'I thought i'm allowed to stay. After all Pine Tree was the one to drag me here.'

'His lying' Lee said, but his brother wan't sure. Stanley never considered demon telling the truth.

Twins looked at each other for a few minutes, unsure of what to do. Demon was shuffling another portions of food, now just stress-eating. Cipher felt really uncomfortable with a loaded gun pointing him. That feeling doubled when Stan took out of nowhere another one.

'What if Dipper really tugged him here?' Stanford asked quietly

'No way! We _can't_ trust him!' Lee opossed 'And how do you know if he wasn't in _that stage_ then?'

Demon's stomach tightened again and he did his best to keep the meal in it. He managed not to throw up, but he dropped the rest of the food. But Lee took that sudden move as an attack. He pointed the gun at Cipher's head. Bill closed his eyes, ready to die in such an embarrassing state. Bang! Bang! Bang! Three shots, but blonde couldn't feel any pain. He slowly opened his eyes.

He saw Pine Tree, exposing his back to the demon. He narrowed his eyes. Hey, the fact that he doesn't have the power don't mean he is harmless! He could take the kitchen knife and.... But that would be senseless, since Dipper was probably the only person in the house that didn't wish to see his dead body. Boy hold a barrier in front of him. Two of the bullets were stopped by it, but the third hit Pine Tree in the arm, gripping on the bone.

'You okay?' Brunette asked, glaring at the demon with a corner of his eye.

Bill nod his head. The one not okay here was Pine Tree! He got shot! Before he could say anything about it, his insides made a flip over and he run to the toilet. Once again he was happy that he found it before the kitchen. And then he couldn't think, he let the body to empty his stomach.

In the kitchen Dipper was standing in front of really surprised Stans, blood dripping from his wounded arm. He cursed quietly, and glared at Lee with offended look.

'That hurts.' He said like an annoyed three-years-old whose mother didn't wanted to buy him candies.'You shot me.'

'You saved that shitty demon!' Stanford screamed 'Why don't you let us fucking kill it?!'

'I would gladly let you shake the shit out of him, but I can't.' His eyes clear blue 'I need him. I'll talk with you when Mabel comes back. She'll be here in a moment.'

And then Dipper took the first aid, bandaging his arm while heading to the bathroom, leaving Stans in complete shock. He found the demon kneeling over the toilet, staring at it with this much intense as if there was hidden the meaning of existence. Dipper squat next to him and reached for Bill's face. He turned blonde's head to him and wiped demon's mouth with toilet paper. For that whole time Bill avoid Dipper's eyes and let him do everything. Brunette didn't expect this much obedience. He thrown the paper int the WC and flushed the water.

'Go to the room I put you at first and wait for me.' He commanded 'I'll get you some food, this time something light so you don't vomit'

'Why should I listen to you, kid?' Now angry flicks appeared in demon's eyes, but when he looked at bandage at Pine Tree's arm some feeling replaced it. Bill couldn't name it. Why does people have so many emotions? That's confusing!

'I'll give you three reasons' Dipper sighted 'For the first you're stuck in this body and Stans want to kill you. That room belongs to me and has a spell that doesn't allow to come in anyone I don't want. So it's the only safe place. For the second you have no money, no identity in our government no one to help you out. You could always sell this watch of yours, but I don't think you would.' Terrified look at demon's face confirmed that he don't even want to _think_ about giving the watch to anybody. 'And for the third I just saved you God-damn life so show some gratitude! If you're not capable of feeling something like this, pretend, cause I can always kill you myself. You're a human now, whether you like it or not. And I would say that you owe me one.'

'Being human sucks. You're so weak' He said. 'And disgusting'

'Well...' Dipper stood up, waiting for the demon to gather himself from the floor.'Beeing human is still better than not existing'

'Hardly' Pine Tree gained a heavy, gold look, and walked out of the room.

'Thank you...' Demon whispered, left alone in the bathroom.

Dipper made sure that the Bill went into right room and slowly walked into kitchen. Stans were standing more or less like he left them, but a hyperactive figure appeared. Those deep-pink hair was remarkable. His twin squeezed him in a bone-breaking hug.

'Ow!' She touched the wound and he couldn't help whining 'Watch out!'

'Um... Sorry, Dippingsauce!' Her eyes smiled, seeing him alive and sane. 'YouseeIdidn'twantedtogothroughyourportalcauseitgoesthroughUnderworldsoItriedtofindyouinthecitybutyouweren'tthereandwhenIwenttotheShackImetStansandtheytoldmethatBillishereandyouneedhimforsomethingsocanyouexplaineverythingtous?'

Dipper blinked a few times, trying to proceed everything she said, and that wasn't easy, since a machine gun was shooting bullets slower than she shoot words at him. He took a chair and sat on it.

'Okay. Let's make it clear' Wizard sighted. 'Perhaps you can see it, Mabel. I'm burning.'

'I know' Mabel's eyes filled with tears.'I've read all those fucking scary books about demons you had left behind, bro bro. I was scared shitless reading them'

'So you know what it means... I'm becoming a demon.'

'Yeah, but how it happened?' Stan asked.

_Dipper reaching for demon's hand, ready to make a deal, his head heavy, his thoughts messed up._

_'Don't do this!' A shout. A shout awaking him. What the hell am I doing? Shouting oui spell. Sealing spell. 'No!'_

_And the fire, green fire, consuming him, sticky heat inside in his chest. Sealing out demon's power. It growled, falling on the basement floor. Glow in it's eyes fading away, it's body decomposing._

_'You damn human! You have no idea what you did! Yooouuuu...!_

_A tall man in dark coat. Grey, grey eyes. A sword silenced the beast for ever. Demon's head rolled through the basement._

_A mark on Dipper's chest, first of magical tattoos. He looked at the man, his birthmark lit with white light. Stranger's eyes widened._

_'You are...'_

_Next words drown in a sea of green flames. That hurts. Hurts so badly. Dipper fell down and curled up on the floor. His heart feels like it's been torn apart, literally. Loud panting, pain._

_The burning has started._

'I tried to seal demon's power inside of me, that was the only thing I could do to stop the beast.' He said .'It worked out, but I was a magic user by then. And when black and white magic clashed, the burn has started.'

'Okay, but how you found a demon in our homeland?!' Mabel yelled.

'That was an accident... I got invited to a demon summoning ritual. I decided to participate in it, because they wanted to summon Bill. I made them choose other one, As Zahzel, who was Bill's enemy. And the ritual worked. I evacuated those boys, and there was Daniel, who wanted to make a deal with the demon. I stopped him, but I got too close to the beast... And I sealed the monster's power in me. That's the story.'

'But what do you need Bill for?' Lee asked with calm voice, but shaking a little.

'Fight fire with fire' Dipper's eyes darkened, green blinks showed up 'And demon with demon'

'Wha...?'

'I have to burn the demon power inside of me, and the only way is with another demon's power. When they clash, they'll both burn each other and disappear. And what will remain of my soul, will grow again, like new plants in a burned meadow'

'But Gideon gave him a human body and drained his power...'

'Yeah, he needed him in a material stage for his machine to work. I wouldn't need that if I found Bill before him...But I didn't. And he drained the power. Now Bill's magic is all around. And only his body can concentrate it. When his power is back I can seal it again and save myself... I may need a deal in his actual stage... But I have no idea how long it'll take for power to gather again in him.'

'Why don't you summon other demon?'

'I can't, summoning will make burning worse. And there's no other equal in power that can be summoned, I need exactly the same amount of power as the demon which I sealed at first. He can stay in my room. I need him, so do not damage him. At least too badly.'

'What do you mean by too badly?' Gruncle asked with keen interest.

Dipper thought for a moment. 'Beyond repair.'

'Do you have plan B?' Mabel's question floated in the thick air for a few second's before Dipper answered it.

'Portal.'

A silence showed that they understood. He would become a demon, but he'll be far away, in another realm, so he won't hurt them. But girl grinned. She didn't want to consider that, and looked at the bright side.

'So I guess you now have a roommate literally from Hell'

 

'Why haven't you stayed in the room back then?' Dipper's voice was calm and tired. He sat on his suitcase watching the demon, who managed to drip soup at boy's armchair as well as burn his own tongue. 'You could wait for me'

'I was hungry, kid.' He said between sips of soup.'You left me alone and unconscious, Pine Tree' His eyes were showing how dumb was Dipper's behavior. 'I wasn't sure if I'm a prisoner or not, so I decided to try walking around. My meatbag has to eat.'

'Yeah...' Dipper sighted 'That sounds like you.'

Demon put the empty bowl on the desk and curled under the blanket. He was almost as tall as Dipper, only a few inches shorter, but he seemed smaller and more... fragile? He also wasn't that muscular, and his age was hard to define. He certainly was in his twenties, but sometimes he looked like he wasn't of age and sometimes like almost thirty. 'Maybe it depends on the light' young man thought and tried to look from other position.

'What exactly are you doing, Pine Tree?' Cipher asked coldly, unsure if the boy was feeling well, weirdly bend to one site, almost falling off the luggage.

'Just... checking something' Dipper mumbled, going back to vertical position. 'Nevermind'

They stayed like that, boy staring at the demon with wide open eyes and Bill watching him with cat-like, gold look. The glare fight was meant to be lost by Dipper, he never had an eternity to wait, so his patience span _must_ be shorter than demon's, but Cipher was the first to look away. Damn human feelings, he cursed in the language of Hell, that can't even be repeat loud on Earth. He didn't know name of this one. He should have studied them closer.

'Didn't you realize that you were about to die?' Dipper pulled the demon out of thoughts.

'I did.' Bill answered, feeling something cold, sticky and heavy poured into his stomach. And what was that one? 'I just decided that death from bullets is better then starving.'

'And that's why you put on the line mine and your life?'

'I didn't knew you'll come running to save me' Demon said in mockery tone, trying to hide that feeling. Ah, yeah. People called it ''Guilt''.

'Five people sacrificed their lives to build you that body, so I couldn't just let it die.' The feeling faded away replaced by... disappointment? And anger. He knew the second one very well. So Pine Tree cared only about those wizards, who lost their lives... That's why he decided to care about him. Oh, yeah, let's test how much a tree can bend before it breaks... New roommate was gonna annoy the hell out of Dipper and make him regret that decision. He smiled, showing teeth a bit to sharp to belong to a human.

He yawned widely. His body was exhausted from all that emotions. Everything new and exciting, but irritating at the same time. To actually have a body, feel the heart beating, the muscles moving, hearing the blood rushing through his veins, it's weight and the gravitation pilling him down, to feel so heavy and cold. Tired. Sleepy. To be restricted by it's limits, and for it to be so similar... Just like thousands years ago... Just like those times that will never return... That brings back memories that he don't want to remember. They were too painful. He checked if the watch was on it's place, kept safely in his pocket.

'I'm sleepy and cold' He complained 'Can we go to sleep?'

'Okay' Dipper nod hid head. 'I'll get you a cot.'

'What?!' Demon asked with indignation.'You want me to sleep on an uncomfortable cot?!'

'Yes' The twin asked, slightly amused 'You won't die if you spent a night on it. If this idea don't suit you, you can always sleep outside, with wolves.'

Demon turned around, deeply offended. He didn't want to sleep with wolves. He saw a lot of things they did to humans (and now he was one of those weak creatures) who entered their territory. Without power, he won't be able to defend himself. Till sunrise there will be only his bitten bones left. But sleeping on a cot... He would freeze to death!

'Not fair' He whined.

'Life isn't fair' Dipper replied with chuckle 'Acknowledge it!'

'Hympf!'

Dipper dragged the cot and gave him a pajama wondering where the hell Mabel took it out of. It was black with simple yellow pattern. They also found a new toothbrush. Dipper was a guy to sleep in his boxers and a random T-shirt so he just put on a black one and got ready to sleep. He was putting another blanket on the cot, when cold fingers slid down his right arm. Boy shivered and glared at Bill with annoyance... However when he saw the demon in the pajama he could only try his best to hold the laugh. The demon looked... well, funny isn't the best world to describe it, just it looked too new on him, like someone had put on a jeans and a sweatshirt on an old, english gentleman.

'What are you doing?' Dipper asked, seeing focus on demon's face. He managed to escape from under that cold touch.

'Translating, kid' Bill answered, staring intensively at black letters. 'Credere et nulli... That would be... ''believe nobody''.'

'More like... ''Trust no one'', but the sense is the same.'

'Why would you tattoo something like this, Pine Tree?' blonde's eyes got wide, glaring at dipper with curiosity, and something more, that he couldn't name.

'I tattooed it after the first ''attack''.' Dipper didn't want to answer but that something in demon's eyes caused him to speak. 'If you can't even trust yourself, you can't trust anyone.'

Bill apparently satisfied his interest so he just sat on the cot, and curled up the blankets. He stared through the small window, looking at stars, but not seeing them. The unwanted memories made a way into his thoughts, causing him to remain silent. Dipper jumped in his bed, and turned off the light. He was still watching the demon, illuminated with moonlight. It glowee in his eyes, mixing gold and blue. That was a nice combination... Dipper wanted to dash off into Mindscape, but he decided to hold on until Bill falls asleep. He heard the demon whispering.

'If you can't trust even yourself, then you should trust your friends, they'll rescue you...'

'If you have friends' Dipper couldn't stop, but interrupt and destroy the mood.

'Yeah... it must be nice to have someone you know he won't stab your back first moment you turn around... So don't lose them, kid'

For a moment boy thought he heard loneliness and sorrow... And a dash of melancholy...? Nooo fucking way, that must be some kind of illusion... Right? That's not possible for a demon to be sad. Or lonely. Just no. He mustn't fall for that trap. But the doubt remained, hid in corner of his mind, ready to bite, once he'll forget about it. Dipper closed his eyes, deciding to think this over when he'll reach Minscape. He almost let his soul leave the body, when...

'Heey, Pine Tree, get me another blanket! I'm freezing!'

Dipper sat on his bed, awake and aware of his surroundings. He sighted. That's gonna be a looong night...

 

On the attic Mabel was thinking intensively, leaning over the pattern volume of Gravity Falls. She looked at figures of Dipper and Candy standing in section ''match'' She sighted and put the girl's model away. That would _never_ work out... Not without love potion... She just wanted it to be true, to matchmake Dipper with someone... Candy's statue ended up next to Robbie. Yeah, that actually was possible... She sighted and unconsciously gripped Bill's figure that she finished painting seconds ago. She was about to put it into ''No match'' box, when a crazy idea appeared in her head. But she was the one frequently called looney, so she didn't mind crazy things. Girl slowly put the figure of demon next to his brother's model...

Mabel's smile was so toothy, wild and insane, that if the Devil himself saw her that moment he would probably run away, screaming like a little girl.

 


	8. Demon days (and nights)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bill is cute when he sleeps~~

Dipper sighted and looked at sleeping demon's figure curled up under blankets. Cold. He almost forgot what it feels like. For years he had a never-ending fewer he couldn't just sweat out. He was burning, and it was always hot. Even now his body temperature was far beyond normal. Every doctor would send him for further treatment or get him to an ice bath. He stood up. Bill was sleeping peacefully, but a little wrinkle of... of what actually? Worry? It stayed on his face, like he had a bad feeling or wasn't comfortable. 'Maybe he really was cold?' Dipper thought, unconsciously coming closer towards the cot. He raised his hand and touched demon's forehead. Boy almost yanked his hand back. It was cold, deadly cold. Or once again he was burning and everything felt too cold. Dipper slowly slipped his fingers through demon's cheek, stopping on his lips. For a second the worry disappeared from Bill's face, but when boy realized what he's doing, stepped back. He went to his bed, and after a moment of hesitation covered the demon with another blanket- his own. He didn't feel like sleeping. He didn't feel like going to Mindscape either. He sat on the armchair and watched the demon till his regular breathing didn't drowse him.

_Bill opened his eyes. It was dark. Cold and dark. He never had anything against darkness, after all he was living in it for thousands of years, but this was different. He was in a body. A weak, human body. He tried to flick his power, but only a small blue sparkle appeared on his fingers and faded. Demon couldn't see anything, no matter how much he tried. Stupid humans. Their sight it so bad, they need light and now he needs light too. He heard a drip. A step followed with a splash confirmed his suspicions. This place was wet. But he remember being in a room, with Pine Tree in Fez's house. This wet place... Could this be a basement? Did they moved him in his sleep? What for? It was cold, even freezing. Water started to soak through his shoes... wait, how come he wore shoes? He was once again in his own clothes, but the cane and top hat were missing. Or maybe they were lying somewhere around but with those human eyes he couldn't tell._

_And then a thought hit him like a bullet in the back. The watch. The watch must be here. Somewhere here. He checked the pockets, but it wasn't there. The watch. The watch. Where can it be? He knelt, like a blind man touching the cold, wet floor under him. He didn't care about the cold. He didn't care about his clothes soaking and water level slowly rising. The watch. It was all he cared about. And it wasn't there._

_He had to find it. He went forward, trying to check the place around him. The watch. He needed it. Demon was panicked, his fingers went numb in the cold water. Damn human feelings. Damn human weakness. He was freezing. The water level was going up and he was still looking for the watch. It was painful, he didn't care. He touched something sharp and cut himself. Bleeding. Piece of broken glass. He raised to his eyes, trying to see it. A glow came from nowhere and everywhere. That was piece of a mirror. He looked around. There were those pieces all over the floor, but he couldn't see the watch, neither the edges of the room. It was still dark, he could only see the shapes of objects, water surface and flashes from the mirror pieces. The watch. The watch. Where was it?_

_**''** _ _**Cipher...** _ _.''_

_He slowly raised his eyes, expecting what he'll see. A shiver went through his body, both from cold and fear. A girl looked at him with a smile. A long time dead girl. She used to have long, blue hair and deep blue eyes, but what remained were only few pods on almost bald head. She had only one eye, the other was a mess of blood and meat. Her body was decaying, few worms fell out of her wide open mouth with no lips. He knew that if she turn around he would have seen two long cuts on her back._

_''What are y-you d-d-doin...'' Bill tried to ask, but his voice cracked._

**_''Why, Cipher? Why did you do this to me?''_ ** _ As she spoke a few of her teeth fell of, and she reached to him with bloody remains of her hand.  _ **_''Look at me, Bill! Look at what you did! I'm awful! And you have now a nice human form... What have you done? It hurts. It hurts so badly... Why didn't you let me dieeeeee?!”_ **

_Demon stepped back, memories hitting him. Every one more painful than the other. That howling... thing. He created it. Another one shaped up next to the girl, a dark figure with falling of wings. Dark lips spoke along with the first creature._

**_''Why, Cipher? Why? Why did you do this? You betrayed us. You betrayed yourself. You betrayed Him!''_ **

_Another shadows appearing. Pale faces of the fallen ones. Cut off limbs, blood, gouged out eyes, ripped out guts, remains of what they used to be. There were lots of them. Hunderts. Thousands. All around. He had nowhere to run._

**_''You betrayed us! You lied! We were waiting, waiting, waiting! Now you are here and no one's gonna save you, Cipher! You come with us! You liar! You monster! Cipher! You promised! And you broke it! You broke it! Look at you! Now you can't keep us away! You have no poweeer!!!''_ **

_Cold bloody fingers touching him. Cold, wet, he knew he's gonna die. Die a real death. Stop existing. The struggled to get out of those cold hands holding him, but they were to powerful, clenching claws upon him. The watch was gone. Nothing to keep them away. No one to rescue him._

**_''Look at you, Cipher, look at you. Who you are? Do you remember? Who you used to be? Do you remember us? Do you remember? Do you remember the promises you broke? You liar. You liar. Do you remember who you are? Do you remember all the lives you destroyed? Cause WE REMEMBER, CIPHER! YOU WILL PAY!!!''_ **

_Cold, cold fingers. And nothing to hold. No one to help. No hope. No way. Only death. He closed his eyes, but the image of those people remained burned on his eyelids. But then he heard a shout._

_''Wake up!''_

_The monsters were still screaming, but through they howling he could hear a voice. Darkness behind him was bloody, sticky and decaying. Someone was calling him._

_''Wake the fuck up, Cipher!''_

_He knew this voice, but he couldn't name it's owner. Once again he struggled against those cold hands holding him back, but he was only dragged deeper into darkness. He couldn't breath. He felt like he was sinking in ice cold water. Or cold blood. Voice. Ah. Right. It belonged to Pine Tree._

_''Don't you dare to die on me, Bill!!!''_

_And then someone caught his wrist and pulled him back into the world of light, warmth and living._

Bill took a deep, panical breath. Dipper exhaled with relief. Demon was alive. Good. For the past few minutes, since boy got woken up by innatural silence he was trying to bring Bill back. From anywhere he went. That wasn't easy, wizard had to shake him, shout, get him warm and share his own life force with Bill. But it worked. He was alive. In his arms. He was so happy that he hugged him. He actually _hugged a damn demon._ Dipper could feel his face becoming red. That was embarrassing.

''Pine... Tree?'' Bill asked, his eyes getting more and more gold, darkness fading away. He looked around and saw his watch, lying peacefully in the sheds near. It was here. He was alive. Nothing to fear.

''Of course that's me'' Dipper hadn't let the demon go. He was still holding him tightly. ''You fucking owe me another one, for saving your ass again''

''Sure, kid.'' Boy was surprised when he heard no mockery in Bill's voice ''But what happened?''

''You have no soul, and the only thing that's animating your body is your power. You used it up almost all, and you didn't have to keep the body living. You... drifted away. To the place you'll go after this body dies, but I managed to get you back. I gave you some of my life force.''

Demon shivered at thought of that place... That was scary. Fucking scary. And _they_ were there. At least he didn't see _him_ among those corpses. He knew one thing for certain. He can't let this body die. No matter what. So that little sparkle was all his power? How pathetic. Bill didn't mind being held close to Pine Tree. For the first time since he turned human he wasn't cold.

'Thank you, kid' Demon said, his eyes serious and wide open. Dipper thought that it would sound great if not the ''kid'' as reference to him. But you can't have everything. Giving life force to others was a exhausting process, so he just stayed on cot next to Bill. Boy was too tired to go back to his bed. He couldn't tell if he fell asleep or if he fainted, but he was almost sure that he heard demon's voice, wishing him good night. But that might be a delusion from giving away too much energy.

 

Mabel tossed into her brother's room not bothering herself with knocking or other irrational stuff. And she saw Dipper sleeping on the cot with Bill. Her plan was going just too well to be true. First day! And she was counting two weeks as the best!

''Good morning, love birds!'' She yelled with a wide grin on her face ''Breakfast is ready!''

Dipper whined in response, imagining Stans reaction. Then he remembered that he put a sound barrier on his door. Everything said here stays here. He opened his eyes just to see Mabel almost running on walls.

''You're misunderstanding'' He tried to explain, his cheeks getting red ''That's just... I had to give to Bill my life force and I fainted'' Even he could hear how weak his explanation sounds.

''Okay, okay, Dippin dots, you by accident lie next to a damn attractive demon while your comfortable, big bed is empty! I got it! Let's go and eat!''

Dipper turned to the demon,(Did Mabel called him attractive, well maybe she got a point...) still cold and curled up in blankets. His heart skipped a beat when he couldn't see any sign of Bill waking up, but then blonde groaned and opened his stunning gold eyes.

''What's up, Pine Tree?'' It sounded like he hadn't heard Mabel ''Oh, hi, Shooting Star. What are you doing here?''

''Came to call you for breakfast!'' She said with a smile.

''Breakfast?!'' Demon jumped out of bed, and managed to get the watch and hide it in his pocket in one move. ''Good, cause I'm starving!''

Dipper stood up, his back aching. Yeah, this cot wasn't best place to lie for a longer period of time. He'll have to think about it... Maybe if they shared bed once nothing will happen? He did have a king size bed on his own, so there was enough space for two people to sleep...

''Dress up first, will you?'' Dipper said, slightly amused by demon's excitation.

''Yeah'' he said after a moment of thinking. ''Do you have some clothes I can wear?''

''You can wear your own clothes'' Dipper furrowed his brows.

''But I was wearing them yesterday!'' Demon protested ''They are dirty!''

''What?'' Dipper didn't understood. He was wearing the same clothes for, like, a week or even a month and he didn't consider it dirty. Only when they got completely stained they could be called that. And he didn't remember Bill's clothes getting visibly stained. Unlike the armchair.

''Oh, you won't get it!'' Mabel exclaimed poking Dipper a few times. ''I'll find something for you, Bill''

Boy wasn't sure if he likes the fact that his twin sister was so nice to the demon. It didn't make any sence. Then girl ran out, leaving the door open and they could hear her making mess upstairs. Dipper gained an amused look from the demon when a loud 'thump' could be heard from the attic. Honestly, was she throwing the wardrobe upside down or what? Then, before boy decided to go check if everything is okay, she ran down the stairs with clothes in her hands.

She got out of somewhere (and Dipper didn't know if he ever want's to see the source of his sister clothing) a set of clean underwear, a white, buttoned-up shirt, yellow sleeveless sweater, dark jeans and even a bowtie. The most mysterious part was the fact that they were exactly Bill's size. She left it in the room, and told then to hurry up because the glitter won't wait. Honestly, Dipper note himself to make next breakfast himself. He had enough glitter for like, rest of his life.

He put on clothes from yesterday under disapproving glare of the demon. Bill muttered something like ''Humans are disgusting'', but boy didn't care. For a while he watched the demon struggling to button up the shirt and finally compassionate over the blonde and helped him. Dipper could feel demon's embarrassment. To need a human with a simple thing like this... Dipper heard blonde's stomach grumbling from hunger. Demon's face haven't flushed red, but his cheeks got slightly pink.

''You humans...'' Bill whined ''Can't you be satisfied once in a while? Since got here I'm either sleepy or hungry or cold. That's annoying!''

Dipper couldn't help but laughed, not caring that it still sounded pretty insane. ''So let's eat something!''

 

When they went into the porch, breakfast was there, along with Mabel and the Stans. Boy thought for a moment and then he remember it was Sunday, so the Shack was closed today. The food was just as shinny and glittering as it was for few days prior. Dipper hoped that he'll get used to his twin way of preparing meals, but he didn't. That was probably phisically impossible. At least for him, because the demon was delighted by Mabel's cooking. And the glitter.

Both Stans sent him a heavy look and atmosphere around them seem to thicken. Dipper could easly understand it. Not every day you eat a breakfast with a freaking demon... And then he realized that it would be their routine now, so he couldn't hold back a wide grin. Bill tried out every single thing twin girl made, from shinny pancakes to Mabel juice. And seemed to like every one of them. He even drank coffee with ''a little sugar'' that Dipper considered completely undrinkable.

''So how do you like human food?'' Mabel tried to pull out a conversation.

''I like it very much, Shooting Star! Your breakfast rule!'' Demon grinned, showing pieces of glitter stuck between his teeth ''It's not like I've never ate it before, but I always did it in a stolen body, so I can't really call back the taste or anything... I just used to part the nerves and my mind when I didn't need them, and so I did with taste, since I needed smell or touch or view more. But your food is really good. It's sweet and warm, and fluffy. No wonder humans like to eat!''

Stanford looked at the demon with mixture of disbelief and unwanted liking. The word _stolen_ was the key word for him. He wondered what more has the blonde stolen in his long, long life. Must ask him later. Lee was just as negative towards the demon as he did since falling into alternative universe. He was already considering what the demon can plot out, but he seemed pretty harmless without the power. Mabel was just happy that someone likes her food, and she used to have more crazy boyfriends than a dream demon stuck in human form, so an exchange of words like this sounded pretty normal. Dipper was just curious about Bill's past. He have almost never seen signs of him, besides Egypt and Gravity Falls. But where was the demon for over two thousands years between those appears? No idea.

As for the object of their interest, demon was just enjoying the food, not really sure what to do. He did have all the knowledge he gathered _before_ loss of the power, but he didn't have anything new and he couldn't just dig up everything from telepathic sources, as he used to. He got surprised and thrown out of his routine and realm. For the first time in thousands of years the demon didn't really had a plot nor a plan and didn't even wanted to have one. That was lazy, human but... nice. Not to care about the future. Not to check at every moment. Not to manipulate over the tinniest things. Not to lie.

He talked with Shooting Star about something meaningless, he even got a fond of her sweaters and asked her for one. They were talking about crafts, designers and colors. They hit it off immediately since Bill gathered big knowledge at this matery. He liked Pine twins for years and wanted to know more about them and their interests. Actually his main aim was Pine Tree, but forgetting about Shooting Star would be a huge mistake. And, after all, he knew the secrets of the universe boy tried to solve. So basically he knew Pine Tree. That is, until five years ago when Dipper disappeared from his sight, hid by that annoying wizard out of every demon's reach. And now Bill wasn't sure how much Pine Tree has changed. Sometimes he seemed to be a completely different person and sometimes he acted just like that foolish kid (okay, maybe a little less foolish) he used to be. And Pine Tree got himself dragged into some shit, as far as demon could tell. If he had the power he could see immediately what was this all about. But now he couldn't. And that pissed him off. And made him excited at the same time. He could find out himself, like humans do, with that imperfect senses of their own.

''Hey, what would you say about getting you some clothes, Bill?'' Mabel asked, pulling him out of his thoughts. ''You can choose them yourself!''

''Hey, we don't have money for expensive shopping!'' Fez oposed with annoyance.

''We'll go to a trift shop!'' Shooting Star's excitement couldn't be stopped by a small thing like this. ''I know a very good one, and it's open on Sundays! And we can meet Pacifica!''

''Let's go!'' Demon cheered, grinning to the girl. ''I'll gladly meet the Lama in person!''

''Lama?'' Mabel eyes widened.

''Yes, The Warrior Lama. I call her that, like I call you Shooting Star.''

''I don't think if she would appreciate this nickname...''

The discussion ended as demon shuffled in another portion of glittery pancakes and Mabel stood up. Stans looked at them, not sure what to think. How come the girl so fast became so friendly with the demon after all he did in the past? But he seemed to understand Mabel and shown interests similar to her own. And liked her cooking. Perhaps that was the trick.

 

Three hours later Dipper had enough shopping for a life. Or a few lives. But Bill and Mabel were in Heaven (as much as a demon would feel good up there) running through trift shop clothes and trying out different outfits. Soon they had forgotten about the world, laughing and having fun, and left Dipper with all-time growing pile of items. Okay, a trift shop was cheap, but their funds weren't infinite. He sighted. He never liked shopping, outfit changes and so on. He liked to go into shop, take some random, dark clothes in his size or similar and not show himself in any clothing shop till he don't wear the previous set out. As far as he could understand, beeing in this shop was like sitting in library or in antiquariat for him. So he just let them having fun, deciding that he'll drag them into some bookstore for revenge.

Finally they had chosen about ten completed outfits for Bill, all in pastel colors, with majority of gold and blue. The demon was complaining abut the new-style looking clothes, but his fashion sense was from about eighteen century. Dipper was carrying the clothes, when Mabel started to shout happily and ran somewhere. As far as he could tell she saw some of her friends, but he had no idea who it might be, since Pacifica declared that she has something important to do and she's not coming today. Bill looked curiously over boy's shoulder.

''Oh, look, there's Bleeding Heart, and some kid I don't know, but he's got weird hair.'' The demon grinned widely, like weird was a compliment.

''That must be Norman. And Robbie.'' Dipper sighted. He had to apologize for his previous behavior. When he went insane last time. He could understand if Bleeding Heart will be a bit jumpy in his presence... Then he realized that calling Robbie by his sign became completely natural for him, even in thoughts. Not good. That was demon thing to call people by their sigils.

''I know who Bleeding Heart is, Pine Tree, you don't have to remind me his name'' Bill's voice pulled the boy out of gloomy thoughts.

They followed Mabel, and some thought appeared in Dipper's head. A fairy and a demon met a necromath and undertaker at the mall... He smirked. That sounded like beginning of a very bad joke. Robbie looked at Dipper with scaredom.

''Hiii! My name is Bill Cipher!'' Demon exclaimed excited, with a wide grin on his face ''Nice to meet you, Robbie, Norman!''

''Hi...Bill'' Norman answered suspicously. Wasn't that the name of demon twins told them to be aware of? And yet they walk with him like nothing ever happened. Weird. ''Nice to meet you too... I guess...''

''How do you know our names?'' Robbie asked, nervously glaring at Dipper and only looking at demon for a few seconds.

''Oh, I know lots of things~'' Demon's grin became crooked and wild, showing a bit of his true self from under human skin. Dipper grimaced. He got a reminder that he should never trust Bill. He's not what he seems in this fraigle form. He still is a demon. And Dipper has plans that he must use him for. No feelings towards the blonde. He's gonna die anyway.

Mabel started a small chat about nothing, Dragging demon's attention to Norman. Her twin moved closer to Robbie.

''I'm sorry for... that... few days prior...'' Dipper started. ''I...I wasn't myself when it happened and I don't really remember what I did, but I hope you're okay...''

''That's f-fine, man.'' Young Valentino managed not to stammer too much. He still was a little jumpy, but his words were true. ''I hold no grudge against you. I had a pretty fucked up day anyway, so nothing happened, really. Just... don't do this again, okay? That's creepy.''

'Sure thing' Dipper chuckled, feeling something as heavy as a stone on his heart. The attack will happen again. That's just the question of time. He hoped that there will be no one around to hurt at that time.

The chat continued, about work, Shack and the town, nothing really important. They were avoiding the themes related to Bill. Norman glared suspiciously at the demon. Robbie was in the mall because he was supposed to meet there with one of clients, but the women broke the arrangement at last moment, and ghost boy came to inform Valentino about it. They were wandering around, Robbie not really wishing to come back, and Norman because he told Robbie's parents to get him home. Mabel was complaining about too little employers in the Shack.

''I can do tours, Shooting Star!'' Bill grinned. ''I will learn a lot about you humans and that's gonna be fun!''

''Cipher!'' Mabel hissed ''Control yourself!''

''Heey, I haven't said anything bad... yet'' Demon hummed happily ''But I can if you don't promise to employee me!''

'' _Shut up''_ Dipper growled and Bill lost his voice. He tried to say something, but no sound got out. He touched his neck in realization. ''That's enough, Cipher. Don't try to threaten us ever again, since you don't have the power to make it into reality.''

Bill gave him an offended look, with angry flicks appearing in his eyes. 'I did nothing!' His expression said, demon nature visible again in his eyes and the grin. Norman stared at the scene, slowly getting the point. Maybe the demon tried to strike again, but they found a way to get control over it? Because he was almost sure that was _this_ Bill Cipher they talked about few days prior. Robbie didn't get it at all. This weird guy was getting on his nerves, and he was related – like many other weird things- to the Pines family. He decided not to give a fuck.

''Don't be too harsh on him.'' Mabel said slowly, trying to stop her eyes from turning pink. ''You shouldn't do this, Bill. That was unnecessary and mean. I was planning on employing you since tomorrow anyway, so you will run the tours. But you have to apologize and promise that you'll never do that again. If anyone knew who you are, people from Gravity Falls could do something stupid. Like a hunt for your skin. Not to mention Gideon. I don't think you want to be his toy...''

Demon couldn't not agree with that. He sighted soundlessly and nod his head. Dipper gave the girl a questioning look. Mabel nod her head, completely calm.

''He can't do much anyway. Let him speak.''

Boy sighted and reversed the spell. Bill tried out his vocal chords. They were working. Good.

''So you will employ me if I promise not to talk too much, and apologize, yeah?''

''Yup'' Mabel answered cheerfully.

''We have a deal'' Bill reached out his hand, but twins glared at him with anger and disbelief. ''Okay, okay... I get it'' he yanked his hand back. ''Habit.''

Twins looked at him impatiently. Norman rose his brows, also staring at the demon. Yeah, they weren't making a deal, so they surely had control over the blonde. Let's see how much.

''I'm sorry this won't happen again.''` His voice was completely emotionless with a flat intonation. ''I, Bill Cipher, promise you that I won't thearten anyone anymore.'' He grinned ''How do you like it?''

''Capable'' Mabel smiled, but Dipper only grimaced. The demon wasn't sorry. And he could break that promise anytime. That was only a non-magic promise. No real confirmation. If he used his true name, that was in the language of Hell, then that would be ''capable''. Not this. It was too unsure. Besides, most promises are hold because of one's honor or pride. He didn't believe in demon having any of them.

''Don't break that promise, Cipher.'' Dipper's eyes were blue and serious.

Bill felt like someone hit him in the stomach. He had more broken promises on his account than Pine Tree could imagine. But his words reminded demon about the one, he didn't wanted to break.

''Okay, enough of this gloomy things!'' Mabel clapped her hands ''Let's eat something!''

 

Few minutes later they were sitting in the dark, greasy place. The best (and only) dinner in Gravity Falls. Lazy Susan wasn't working there for a few years now, and a young dark-haired waitress took their order. There were only four of them, as Bleeding Heart decided to go back home, and told Norman to stay.

''I tell you, these pancakes are to die for!'' Mabel cheered gesticualting lively and almost hitting Norman in the face. He was sitting squeezed between girl and the wall in an uncomfortable position, since he didn't really wished to get hit by hyperactive brunette. Dipper was sitting next too Bill and that didn't suit him apparently. He was shooting at the demon alarming glares, but Bill behaved well and given his order without any unneccesary comments. Demon decided not to do this loud or in other people's presence, for now at least. He never promised that he won't comment anything. Then he felt it, a strange sensation, almost sound, but silent. He knew what is that one. He clenched his hand on the watch. A warning.

''I'm going to the toilet'' He declared and stood up. He grinned and walked away. He could feel Dipper's suspicious look on his back. He went int the toilet and locked the door. Demon wait few seconds and yanked the watch out of his pocket. He opened it with a click.

Normal person wouldn't read anything out of the clock. It was weird, with stars, planets and constelations floating alongside sigils, symbols and words in long-forgotten languages. On the centre ther wasn't Sun, but a strange, glowing rune. He looked into it, through the Strings of World, seeing possible timelines and looking at future. That was his only connection between him and Mindscape.

After all, he was Bill Cipher, the demon that always finds a way out. He watched possible futures with mixture of worry and amusement. Some ended pretty bad. Some other were hilarious. But that's not a thing for now. He couldn't be there long, someone would notice. What was that message, that warning he got? He looked at the dangerous timeline, his face went pale and his eyes wide open. He knew that it'll happen. He hoped not. And yet he was again tracked down like an animal on the hunt.

After all, he was Bill Cipher, the demon running away from both, the dead and the living.

 


	9. Insomnia

Sunday passed quickly, as Bill got surprisingly calm and obedient after the visit in Greasy's. That was weird, the demon was thinking intensively. His hands were shaking when he was cutting his pancakes, he did his best to hide it, but all of them spotted his unnatural silence. Demon was eating pancakes, not feeling the taste, chocking with every bite. After they came back to the Shack he cheered a little bit. 'That's still far away' he said to himself 'That may not even happen. Maybe the track will be too faint.' He repeated it like a mantra. After all he was in Mindscape for only few seconds using the watch. And he's not gonna go there again. He saw that timeline, but that might not be the one that'll happen. He won't let it be the one that'll happen. He could do as much... Right?

Night also passed quickly and calm, Dipper sitting at his desk, working on some stuff demon wasn't interested in, and Bill reading books that Mabel lend him. Those were some romances that didn't need effort from reader, but Cipher liked them, because of very rich descriptions of feelings. None of them slept, and when morning came, demon had a plan and boy had a headache.

On Monday Dipper got up before his sister (what was easy since he wasn't sleeping at all) and made breakfast himself. At first hardly-conscious Mabel couldn't focus enough to see anything unusual, but after few sips of Mabel juice (just what the hell she made it of?) woke up completely, full of energy and cheerful like always. Then she looked around, getting her bedhead down and she noticed the meal.

''It isn't glitter-y'' She complained. ''And the colors are dull, not even a bit of pink.''

''Oh, shut up you faerie!'' Dipper laughed, throwing a pancake on her plate. ''You fearies don't...''

But she never knew what faeries don't, because rest of the sentence got interrupted by a loud, sad music from outside. Twins looked at each other with raised brows. 'What the hell?' They seem to ask. And then a male voice started to sing.

''Mabel my dear, I love you to death

Come back to me I'm holding my breath

Tell me you're fine, I'm here for you

My heart is torn, cause I love yoooouuuu!''

Girl groaned, not liking the sound, the music and the person behind it. Almardiel. That fucking elf, she already told him that it was only one night. One. Fucking. Night. Not more. She became much more assertive till the adventure with Gideon (and many more _adventures_ she's been through) and she always spoke her mind, not really caring about other side's feelings. She every time made sure to clear out the situation. But that not always worked. Like with this one.

First to react was Grunckle Stan, he had a lot to say about waking up people at this hour by heart issues... And most of it were sweeps and different kinds of curses, from a wish of a certain body part falling apart from poor worshiper's crotch, through his hair falling of, decaying tongue, to exploding eyes, and a classic, witch included the fact that elf's mother was certainly a prostitute and that a very ugly ork have something in common with his birth. Dipper and Mabel were listening with growing respect for varied vocabulary their Grunckle had. Soon, when stubborn elf was still singing, a random items followed the words. At that point Lee looked from his window, but decided to ignore the incident. He was busy and his brother could handle this.

Mabel didn't wanted to stand up and explain _again_ to Alm that she _isn't_ interested in him even a bit. And he can fuck himself, _alone_. Girl sighted and went out of house. Stan closed the window, leaving the worshiper to the girl. Dipper was watching her through the kitchen window, curious of what will happen.

''Is that loud bumbass Shooting Star's friend?'' Bill asked, rubbing his eyes. Brunette jumped hearing a voice next to his ear. Demon seemed to appear from nowhere.

''Not really _friend_...more like... ex-lover...'' Dipper explained, putting the knife, he grabbed instinctively, aside. ''I wonder what she'll do...''

''Let's see!'' Bill passed Dipper and walked outside before brunette could react. Cursing, young man ripped off smock and followed the demon. He caught him in front of the Shack, watching with amusement how elf tries to explain something to Shooting Star, what was tricky since she silenced him with the same spell Dipper used at demon the day prior.

''I don't love you!'' Girl shouted at Almardiel, cutting of his pantomime ''I never loved you! Acknowledge that! I. Don't. Fucking. Love. You! I have someone!''

Elf's eyes narrowed and he crossed his shoulders. 'Prove it' his body language showed.

''Ya wanna proof?!'' Mabel screamed, angry. ''You will see!!!''

And she turned around and kissed... Bill. Wait, what? Dipper's jaw dropped open from shock. What the hell?! Demon kissed her back. No, stop. That was too much. They were making out for a far too long for Dipper. He grabbed them by clothes and pulled away.

''That's enough, _love birds_ '' He hissed and gave poor elf a crazy murderer's glare. ''You better don't come again or I'll rip you to tiny pieces for not respecting my sister's privacy. Got it?!''

Alm nod his head, sad. So his princess had a new lover... And a huge bastard brother... Elf slowly turned around, but hearing a growl from Dipper's direction he ran to the forest, loosing few things on the way. Meanwhile brunette was starring with anger mixed with disbelief at his sister, still holding her and Bill by their clothes. He wanted to say something, but he didn't have words hard enough to describe his feelings. An amused voice interrupted his tries to find them.

''This girl surely know how to kiss!''

None of them noticed a pair of purple eyes watching from behind the tree.

 

 

''You _kissed_ a damn _demon!!!_ '' Half of hour later twins still couldn't come to an agreement.

''So what?!'' Mabel was angry, why does her brother must make such a big fuss of a one, tiny kiss? ''That was for Almardiel to fuck off!''

''You could just speak to him!'' Boy couldn't anwer why he's so angry, but that didn't change the fact that he was pissed like hell. He ran again through the logical arguments for his wrath. Okay, there were few really reasonable.

''That haven't worked for w few last times! I had to kiss someone!!!'' Girl tried again.

''But why a demon?!'' And here lies the dog buried. If that was some girl, if that was a faerie, Norman, Coraline, a merman or anyone else that would be fine with Dipper. However she would understand Mabel's pont of view if he wasn't this angry. The demon was the closer one who wasn't her relative. He was just nearby and that was why she kissed him.

''He was the closest one!'' She hissed, her deep pink hair floating around ''I would kiss anyone who was near!''

''But that was a real kiss! No false one!'' Dipper grimaced, kicking his armchair. They were arguing in his room, since they didn't want any audience. ''You kissed him for _real!''_

''Oh, come on, Dipdop! All boys look the same when you close your eyes! I could imagine anyone!'' She didn't admit that she actually _imagined_ Pacifica... that included a few changes, but Mabel has one hell of an imagination... ''Besides, in this body he is amazingly handsome...''

''Please, stop it!'' Dipper growled.

''Can't we just forget it?!'' Girl was hungry and tired of this argument ''That was just a kiss, not a marriage proposal...''

''If you read those books I left at home properly you would know that for some kinds of demons a kiss actually _is_ a marriage proposal! Do you really want to be bound to a demon for your whole life and afterlife?!''

''But Bill don't have power...''

''But he still is a fucking _demon!''_

''Nothing happened!!!'' She yelled ''I'm not bound, i'm fine so just forget about it!!!''

The cause of their argument came into the room and saw an upcoming fight between the twins. Bill smiled widely.

''Heeey, Shooting Star, Pine Tree, don't tell me it's all because of a kiss?'' He chuckled, amused. ''Sorry, Shooting Star, I'm not gonna marry you, only time demons are using a kiss to seal the souls! Besides I don't even swing that way!''

That changed the atmosphere of the room, anger faded away, replaced by curiosity. Dipper decided to give it up.

''Girls?'' Mabel asked, full of hope.

''Humans'' A lie slipped easily from Bill's tongue. ''That kiss meant nothing and I get nothing out of it. Wrong kind of demon, kid. If that's understood, let's open the Shack! I want to run tours!''

 

Rest of the day went quickly, Bill was running tours, wearing his own, (washed) clothes, and he gathered a girl fanclub as big as Dipper. Grunckle Stan helped them, handling most of boys audience and Mabel was showing Shack to children. Coraline had hands full at the souvenir shop, and even Lee came for a moment too see what's up and help her. For whole day Dipper was a bit detached, all the time looking for gold blonde hair in the crowd. He repeated to himself that it's just because he doesn't want anyone get hurt. He wanted to see truth in demon's eyes, when he was saying about that kiss meaning nothing. What a foolish idea.

In the evening they both prepared themselves to sleep, but none of them really wanted to do so. Bill was sitting on the armchair, reading more romances borrowed from Mabel. He really started to like this kind of literature. He even didn't care that most of them were poorly written. Dipper was glad that the demon don't want to sleep. He would have to propose the place in his own bed (because that cot was really uncomfortable like hell) and he could feel his face becoming red at only a thought of it.

''How long can a human be okay without sleep, Pine Tree?'' Bill asked, looking at Dipper over the romance.

''With caffeine stimulation up to week.''

''Then get me another cup of coffee, kid.'' He said ''I will sleep once a week.''

''Why is that?'' Dipper asked, deciding to explain side effects later.

''If I go to sleep I will end up _there_ and I'll... panic and use up my power. I don't think you are willing to give me more of your life force, so if I sleep the least it would be the best. It even rhymes.''

''Okay...'' Dipper went to get a two cups of coffee, he could bring one to Bill, since he was pouring one for himself anyway. He came holding two hot drinks, one in every hand. He tried to put the demon's cup at the arm of the armchair, but Bill at the same time reached for it. Their hands collised and hot coffee splashed on blonde's pajama.

''Heey!'' Demon stood up and took of the wet shirt. ''That's not nice, Pine Tree!''

''I...I'm sorry...'' Dipper mumbled to his toes, red to his ears. Bill sighted looking at the ruined shirt. Brunette risked a look at the demon. Without the shirt demon turned out to be pretty muscular. He was very slim, even skinny. His skin was gold-tanned and looked soft. But not that attracted Dipper's attention. On the neck Bill had a wheel, but instead of the symbols there were runes. ''Out of your sight'', dark lines carved in the skin. And on his back there were scars, two symetrical white scars making incomplete letter ''V''. They started from vanes and ended about waist. Thick, long and awful, cutting through demon's back.

''What's that?'' Dipper asked gesturing Bill's back. ''You didn't have an opportunity to damage your body this much...''

''This? No... Those are scars I got few thousands years ago. A material sign of not material stage. I didn't know they'll show up... Old scars to remind about what must stay forgotten...''

Dipper couldn't resist, pulling towards the scars like some magnetic force lead his fingers. He touched the white, freezing cold line. Blonde shivered and gripped the cloth in his hand, clenching his teeth, trying to hold back a moan. Amazing heat went trough his body, as Dipper's touch had set him on fire. But that wasn't a bad sensation. He yanked out of brunette's reach, his hands shaking. Stupid body. Stupid human feelings.

''D-don't do this again, Pine Tree'' He hissed, trying hard not to stammer.

''I'm... I'm sorry'' Dipper mumbled second time within few minutes. He wanted badly to touch that cold skin and he couldn't understand it.

''It's fine, kid'' Bill sighted as he calmed down, but even a thought of this sensation caused him to shiver. ''Just get me some dry shirt. I'm freezing.''

''Alright.'' Dipper turned around, still red, and looked for something suitable in his wardrobe. He took out a black one (well, most of his clothes were black...) and handed it to demon, staring at the floor like there was something really interesting. He sat on his bed and hid himself in one of his books, wondering what meaning had those old scars. Maybe Bill was fighting with As Zazhel years ago and that was some kind of sigil or spell? He couldn't focus at the book, watching demon from under his fringe.

Okay, Mabel had some point saying that Bill's body was attractive, but... And then he realized something. He was doing it again, wasn't he? He looked inside of him, at his aura, and he found the spell tangled inside of him. That was bad. He was unconsciusly using up his magic to put down feelings... Yeah, he must've set it years ago and he forgot about it... Tough _she_ told him that there's something messed up in his aura, but he ignored it, he thought she was talking about burning... Every spell could cause the attack, yet he was playing with fire all the time, not knowing about that fact. He slowly undid the spell, rooted into his aura almost completely.

And everything hit him. Every sensation became amazingly _intense,_ and his point of view made a flip over. Oh, shit, so that was another cause of attacks... He was afraid of his feelings back then, so he blocked them... Once again he looked at Bill, now aware of what he'll see.

Damn... Mabel was right, that demon was unbelievably attractive... Those big, stunning gold eyes, surrounded by pitch-black lashes, could easily win with the sun. He had a little messy hair, falling a bit into his left eye, in radiant blonde color, shining like stars, but at the same time seemed so fluffy Dipper wanted to tangle his fingers into it and check the facture himself. His lips were full and pink, crooked into a tiny smirk, as he was reading one of Mabel's books. Demon's facial features were a bit sharp, but not in a bad way, rather hypnotizing, showing that there's something more than a young man underneath this skin... And Bill's skinn was soft and cold, but slightly tanned, in the best shade of complexion boy had ever seen. His fingers were slim and long, they could belong to a pianist or a violin player. Oh, holy shit. Why does a demon has to have such a god-like body?!

Bill noticed Dipper's look and boy turned red again. Oh, shit, he again felt like a teenager...

''You're staring at me, you know, Pine Tree?'' Demon smiled, amused by young man's embarrassment. ''That's impolite.''

''Sorry'' Dipper hid himself behind his book, but no matter how many times he read the same paragraph he couldn't understand it. That's exactly why he put that barrier... He shouldn't undo it... But now he couldn't make another one not risking an attack... Fuck, he a wizard and yet he can't cast anything reasonable not to get driven insane... Mabel's a faerie, maybe she could help him... No, forget it, stupid idea... Good that Bill isn't sleeping. But at least now he could understand the feeling that made him so angry when Mabel kissed the demon... He was freaking jealous and because of barrier he couldn't name it... That was bad...

Dipper sighted and lied down on the bed, deciding that he'll go wander around Mindscape. He was up for almost two full days, his body was exhausted and he didn't feel like dreaming... That would probably end up with another nightmare.

''What's that?'' Bill's voice pulled his out of thoughts and boy looked at the demon. He was holding an ipod which was wallowing on the floor for past few days.

''An ipod.'' Dipper explained. ''You can listen to music on it.''

''Really?'' Demon stared to push the buttons... But the headphones were lying on the floor. ''It doesn't work!''

''Here'' Boy plugged the headphones into Bill's ears, trying not to touch the skin.

Demon listened for a while and started to wave to the rhythm. The thing he liked the most about humans was music. Maybe except synthesized one... But it was better to hear it through this kind of ears, it wasn't that bad... Bill decided to keep the ipod. Dipper can live without it.

Brunette lied down again and watched with a smirk Bill, who was moving to the music and reading book at the same time. And, before he could leave his body, he was driven into a dream.

 

_Dipper was standing in front of the Shack, and there once again were Mabel and Bill kissing. He grew with anger. How dare they, once again? Maybe that's because Mabel was faerie... He stepped forward and he realized something. White flames burned around the pair. That was a time demon magic. He tried to shout at them, but his voice was lost. He stepped forward, but everything went so big, and he was so small. He turned into stuffed wolf. He ran on four stiff paws, trying to drag Mabel's attention. Bill, no, not Bill, but something similar glared at him with three white eyes without irises. Girl looked at him with amusement. She touched Dipper-wolf and she started to shout. Mabel was burning with green flames, screaming from pain. And someone was laughing, a cold, crazy laugh. Mabel burning alive in front of his eyes, she tried to reach for him, but her body was falling apart, turning to ashes. And that laugh was echoing inside of his head._

Dipper woke up with accompany of loud, panicked scream, like taken out of horror movie. It took him a while to realize that he was the one screaming.

 

* * *

 

Far, far away a blond-haired demonette closed her watch. It was black like onyx with gold lines forming a triangle. The trace was weak, but so was Bill at the moment. She smiled and pierced the map at a small city in USA. Gravity Falls, Oregon. So that's where he had been hiding.

''Gotcha!'' Lucille Cipher cheered with a wild, crooked smile ''You cannot run forever, brother''

 

* * *

 

Cold hands were holding Dipper's wrists. He opened his eyes just to see demon's face too close for his liking. Bill was sitting on boy's chest, pinning him to the ground.

''Whadafuck?!'' Dipper asked, and struggled against surprisingly strong demon's hands. ''Lemme go!''

Blonde loosen his grip, and stepped back, watching suspiciously Dipper standing up. Then wave of pain hit boy, as well as memories from the dream. He started shaking and wrapped his arm around his chest. He kneeled and griped his teeth trying to hold back another scream. Blood was flowing from his arms, he scratched it deeply during the dream. What was that? Why that was so intense and why that nightmare was so _real?_ Every time boy closed his eyes he saw an image of Mabel consumed by green flames.

Cold arms wrapped around Dipper, demon hugged him closely, head on his shoulder and boy couldn't stop the tears falling from his eyes. He started to cry, he felt very stupidly when he imagined how they must look at that moment, but he couldn't help sobbing, and held Bill as hard as the demon was the only thing that stopped him from drowning. He griped his hands, Bill was stroking him on the head, whispering soft words in a language older than earth, that boy couldn't recognize.

It took time for Dipper to calm down enough to let Bill go. He was pretty aware of scratches he left on demon's back. Another lines to his colletion. He was too exhausted to feel embarrassment and he just stayed on the floor when Bill walked out of the room, leaving the door open. After a few minutes he followed the demon, curious about the noise from downstairs. He walked into the kitchen and raised his brows.

Bill was standing near the table with two big cups of hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows (How the hell he made it not turning on the light?). He grinned and handed one to very surprised Dipper. Before boy could answer blonde gestured the way to the roof and they both climbed up, what wasn't that easy with a cup in hand. Bill took over one of the deck chairs, which were dragged there by Wendy years ago, and left the other one to brunette.

''Okay'' Dipper whispered ''What the hell is this all about?''

''I read in one of Shooting Star's books that if a human has a nightmare you should calm him, give him something sweet and warm and drag his attention to something else'' Demon grinned ''So I'm following the instructions''

''Oh'' Boy felt something heavy in his stomach. He hoped his voice doesn't sound disappointed. ''You're doing well...''

''Yeah.'' Demon smiled ''It's nice here with you''

''What?'' Dipper almost dropped his cup of hot chocolate.

''It's... nice to sit like this. And it's nice to eventually do something... good''

''Uhm'' Boy didn't know what to say, so he went with the first thing that came to his mind. ''But you skipped one point.''

''Really?'' Bill looked confused and disappointed. He thought he did everything correctly. ''What was that?''

''The lights.'' Dipper blushed again, happy that blonde can't see that. ''You haven't turned any lights on'' Brunette gained confused look and tried to explain himself. ''You see, most people, they are scared of darkness... And if they go into a dark coridor the nightmare comes back... If someone got woken up by nightmare, they would light every single light on the way, to see it's safe.''

''I understand'' Bill sighted sadly. ''So I messed up again...''

''No, no!'' Boy protested ''You did really well. I'm not scared of darkness.''

''Neither am I'' Demon grinned again ''So I did good?''

''Yeah... Very good, thanks for this...''

And they stared at the stars, looking for shooting one's and sipping their chocolates. Bill thrown into it too much kakao, but it still was drinkable. And it wasn't glittering. That was an enormous advantage. Demon got a bit bored so he started to point out the constellations.

''Look, there's The Dog, with Syrius, that brightest one. There is Orion's Belt. And that one is Cassiopea!'' Boy stared with little interrest. He could see that one coming. ''And there is Big Dipper!'' Demon ginned happily. ''It had to shine really bright the day you were born, so your parents gave you a name like this!''

Brunette almost chocked with his cup of chocolate. He saw only truth in demon's eyes. So Bill didn't knew. He knew so much, yet he hadn't dig out the fact that Dipper wasn't boy's true name. And he didn't knew about the birthmark too... Just what doesn't it mean to Dipper? That means demon don't know about brunette's biggest strength and weakness. That means blonde has no idea about boy's plan. That means Bill isn't staying here waiting for opportunity to steal his power (which was impossible because of burning). That means demon is not as much of a sly bastard brunette thought. That means Dipper still must kill Bill Cipher. And that means demon has no idea about the danger he is in, sitting here on the roof and he has no idea about the sacrifice Dipper will make him pay. Just how much like Gideon Dipper was at that moment? Boy wanted to split that secret. He wanted to run. He wanted to go through the portal and never come back. He was the bad guy here, he was the monster. And that hurt him a lot.

But he remained silent, looking at the stars. And that hurt him more than the burning.

 

Next few days passed unnoticed, Dipper and Bill living from one cup of coffee to another, sometimes replaced by energy drinks or Mabel juice, both looking like vampires, with dark bags under their congested eyes. They were falling asleep in random places, every time they stopped for a moment, had problems with simple tasks and couldn't clear out thoughts. They were messing up languages, boy sometimes speaking in latine or other Mabel couldn't name and demon split a few times words in language of Hell that made the light bulbs explode or burn something. But Bill was also mumbling and reciting in an old language that no one could understand, but Mabel liked to hear it, it was beautiful, melancholic, melodic and... singy. She didn't have any better word for it.

They spent night together, but apart, in the same room, but in other worlds. Bill inside of romance novels, with music in his ears and Dipper concerned about some research, counting some possibilities, drown in his own thoughts. Time to time their worlds clashed, when one of them felt asleep and the other shook him awake. That continued for far too long, even Mabel send them away, deciding that they are too exhausted to work. Dipper didn't wanted to go into mindscape, at least not his own, but he didn't wanted to destroy someone's privacy by invading people's dreams. He did it only when he had some buisseness to do, and hours of boredom in the part of Mindscape that doesn't belong to anyone's mind will become minutes in reality. And Bill declined the idea of sleeping, scared of nightmares.

''This can't continue like this!'' Dipper didn't withstand and book (about physics) he was holding at the moment flew through the room. ''We both have to sleep!''

Bill unplugged his ears and stare at the boy. That was true. They would faint in no time. But what to do to keep the nightmare away? The only way was to go into someone's dream, and demon was bound in this body. Also a person who had somebody in his Mindscape won't have any nightmares... He knew how to stay in subconscious and control what intruder will see. There was only one way. Bill was too tired to think and too scared to sleep normally. He knew he is doing something stupid, but he was too desperate to care.

-You can... You can go into my Mindscape.

 


	10. Dream Demon's Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A trip inside demon's mind

Dipper still couldn't believe the fact that demon let him in. Boy made a quick illusion that hid the burning and his dreamform looked like it never started. He stepped into Bill's mind.

Library. Not some creepy forrest. Not a graveyard. Not a palace. A library. Bill's mind was a huge library with billions of thousands of books, with new and old covers in all colors. It was clean, mostly gold, blue and black, beautiful and weird at the same time. The library was full of rooms and corridors, all with books standing on regalls with a prefect order that Dipper couldn't work out. There wasn't a carpet, even the floor and walls were covered in magazines like a weird wallpaper, about every possible subject, from magic, through make-up, on science finishing. He looked around and took out a book. He opened it, every page was a memory. It would take at least a few lives to see thought all that... Dipper decided to look for something entertaining. Memories on corridor were probably the not interesting ones. Every door had a description with a rune or a symbol.

First spelled 'Blackmail', boy decided to skip that one... It might be too hard for him to see. The second were signed 'Lies' and he passed without looking. Third one's seem more interesting, this pair was big, black like onyx with only three gold lines forming a triangle. It was dark and scary and forbiden. He reached for the handle...

''Hey, hey, hey, Pine Tree, that's privet!'' Bill sounded amused, but he was scared. Those door weren't supposed to be open. Or on sight. ''You should leave this and go on. I won't let you there.''

Dipper jumped a little and blushed, looking at the demon. Bill was wearing an outfit completed from white buttoned-up shirt, black pants, black, old fashioned shoes bowtie and top hat. Unusual was an eye patch on his left eye. He also had his cane and was actually using it while walking, like his left leg was damaged. Demon showed to the boy next pair of door, rune on it spelled 'Gravity Falls'. Dipper wasn't sure if he wants to go in there, so he shook his head. He looked at next one, big and brown and he read 'Secrets of The Universe'. Boy rushed for it.

''Are you sure, Pine Tree?'' Cipher asked and gained a confused look.

''Sure of what?''Dipper didn't understand.

''Do you really want to do it the easy way? Just get the secrets shown in my mind, every one solved and clear?''

''What do you mean?'' Boy asked, slowly getting the point.

''That would be too easy!'' Demon exclaimed ''Don't you want to solve it yourself? I can give you tips, but do you really want to just get everything without any effort? Here you can get any knowledge from any book you have in your room and more''

''You're right...'' Dipper's nature was a nature of a scientist. He wanted to solve everything, find out take notes and clasiffy it himself. ''That would be stupid if that wasn't my reaserch for real, but a kind of copy/paste from an eternal beeing's mind...''

Bill laughed. ''Follow me, kid.'' He said '' I'll show you a place you might like.''

When demon turned around boy saw two big stains of blood on blonde's back.

''You're bleeding'' Dipper said.

''Yup, I know'' Bill only cheered, not willing to answer any questions. He stepped forward.

''Is that because you're stuck in human form?''

''That?'' Demon chuckled. ''No, those are the scars you saw. In my dreamform they are still fresh wounds. Kind of curse.''

''Oh'' Dipper mumbled. ''And why aren't you in your triangle form?''

''That's a privet question, kid, I think you will have to pay for further info!''

''Pay?'' Boy raised one brow. ''Isn't the fact I'm keeping you in my room enough payment?''

''Hmm...'' Demon thought for a moment. ''Nope!''

''So what do you want?'' Dipper sighted.

''A tiny... deal'' Bill smiled widely, what looked horrible on his angelic face.

''No deals!'' Dipper's voice was cold and angry. ''Never again demonic deals!''

''Ookie, calm down, kid'' Demon chuckled ''That's not a big deal... And no demon deal...''

''No demon deal?'' Dipper raised his brows ''What do you mean?''

But Bill already disappeared behind a corner. Boy runned after him, but he found only more and more corridors. The demon was nowhere to be found. He stepped forward, after a blink of gold he saw, or he thought so. The deeper inside Cipher's mind, Dipper was more and more lost, everything was getting dark, book covers were in black and white scale, colors got lost. Everything seemed twisted and dirty, covered in spider's web, dark shapes were crawling on the ceiling and floor, some of them, bigger, colder, more scary, were watching him with dead eyes from behind the regals. It was freezing cold, he wanted to go back, but he lost all sense of direction in a meaningless run after a blink of gold. Books were falling off their places, old, forgotten and decaying, spreading around poisoned memories full of darkness, pain and blood, that looked like black holes in matery of universe.

And, a miracle appeared in front of Dipper's eyes. Very old, dark door covered in spider's web were partially open. And the sunlight was shinning from behind them. Light, colour, life. And he saw Bill, in human form sitting with someone, his eyes deep blue, dressed in a white robe, no eyepatch, no wounds probably, boy couldn't see demon's back, only part of his troso and hand. Dipper stepped closer, he could hear some oriental music playing. And then Bill from memory started to laugh. Not the usual, crazy, cold, ironic laugh. A real laugh, full of joy and hope, and that was the most beautiful thing Dipper had ever heard. All that he wanted was to stand there and listen to this laugh till the end of universe.

Suddenly a cane slammed the door closed. Bill appeared from nowhere when Dipper was staring into that memory. He stood between boy and the black door, with white symbol resembling wings on them. Dipper stepped back. He could feel anger and sad irony radiating from demon. That wasn't supposed to be seen by anyone. Ever. Dark aura made the place looking even more scary. Cipher stood, blood dripping from his hand, it seemed he opened some old wound on arm holding the cane. Blonde's eyes were hid behind his fringe. Gold part of his suit slowly turning red, on his vest appeared a pattern made of flames. When he spoke his voice was freezing cold and came from everywhere around.

**''Don't you EVER AGAIN come into this part of my dreamscape or else I'll KILL you and it DOESN'T matter if I kill myself because of power loss at the same time. UNDERSTOOD?!!!''**

That wasn't the first time Dipper saw mad Bill Cipher, but whether the memory was old, or demon never was that angry, boy couldn't tell. On blonde's forehead appeared a third eye, red and the normally white part turned black. It flashed with horryfing gaze of cat pupil. Bill's hair started to turn red like blood, and red flames covered him.

**''I will ask one more time, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!''**

''Y-yeah, sorry...'' Dipper stammered under gaze of three-eyed, read-headed Bill. He stepped back.'' I-I won't come here, I promise.''

**''Good.''**

Third eye closed and blonde returned to Cipher's hair. He slowly calmed down, red color faded away, and he faltered a little. He turned around without a word and walked away limping visibly. Dipper just followed him. After all, he was in the dream demon's mind, he had to respect it's owner. Besides, he really didn't want to pack himself into something... Well, he didn't even want to wonder what can be found here...

A hidden passage opened as Bill touched one of books, and they went trough a black corridor, with a single light bulb dangling sadly from the unseen ceiling. It was covered with dust and spiderwebs. There were no books at all. Demon went through a door on their right, but boy slowed a little to see what could be this place. He saw footprints in dust covering the floor heading forward, into darkness. But then Bill tapped the floor inpatiently with his cane, and Dipper rushed after him. The hidden door closed behind the young man, blocking the way to mysterious passage.

The next door were big, gold and black with a sentence in latine over it.

''Hic muti loquuntur, hic mortui vivunt'' Dipper read quietly.

''That's right, kid.'' Bill smiled a faint smile '' 'Here the mute speak, here the dead live'. That's a traditional sentence written over library doors... Or is it still? I don't know, last time I checked it was about 800 years ago... Anyway, make yourself at library''

The door opened showing an amazing amount of books. Dipper hold his breath for so long that he saw scotoma before his eyes. He took a deep brath to calm himself. Since he came to Gravity Falls, he feels like a twelve-years-old again. But that thought stayed in his brain only for a few seconds, before he ran to see all those exciting, ancient and new books. Even here books were in some weird order, or so he thought at first, when he saw ancient egypitan's papyrus, next to new psychology textbook, but after a few minutes he found a pattern. Everything was connected. In a normal library, he would have to run from one bookshelf to another to find books in other divisions. But demon's knowledge was systematized in a different way. He was reading a book about psychic abilities, so normally he would have to go to biology section and find something about human brain, yet here, books all about how brain works, or how much people know so far, was standing right next to the psychics book. The ancient papyrus was about people with abnormal power from about 2000 years before Christ. It was all conected

Bill laughed at young man to be so concerned about books, but then he remembered how he loved them, long, long ago in a different life... The truth was, he still loved them. If he wouldn't his mind couldn't be a library. He sat on a sofa, watching Dipper running through books, writing things down, thinking intensively. That's why he always liked Pine Tree. That boy was clever, a type of the scientist, but also a warrior, on the other side. Demon watched him growing up here, in Gravity Falls, as from a curious like hell teenager he becomes a man, not loosing that glow in his eyes, going though the city with eyes wide open to all the abnormalities of the world. He also like that Pine Tree was brave, and he could find a way out of anything if he wanted to. But what worried him, was that time span. When demon met Pine Tree after all this years... He couldn't remember it clearly, due to shock of getting the body, but it was scary, angry and sour. Nothing like Pine Tree. Even now, kid looked different. It was always like boy had a fire in his head. Now, someone or something was putting it down, as only a faint glow remained from something that once was a blue light, bright enough to overcome the sun. Bill saw it again when boy started to look through the books. But that glow didn't look majestatic anymore. It looked like a old olive lamp, when someone forgot to put more oil in it. Looked sick. Demon wondered who did this to that kid, and realized that whoever hurt Pine Tree he wanted to make them bleed, scream and beg for mercy.

Bill laid on a sofa. He'll think about it later. And he'll do everything to get that glow back. The thing he hated most was wasted potential. Wonder if it's possible to fall asleep inside a dream...

 

When demon drifted away, Dipper still looked through next and next books. He was inside of a dream, so he didn't feel sleepy at all. He marked lots of places on the map, looking though new and old things, he found another city with such weak border between the worlds, just like Gravity Falls. It was somewhere in country called ''Poland''. He'll go see it. If there are more places like this it'll be quite dangerous to let them hanging. Who knows how much more demons can project themselves into our dimension... After few hours of work, tough in the dream, he felt exhausted.

He sighted, and then he saw Bill sleeping on an old-fashioned sofa. Really? Is that even possible to sleep inside a dream? Quite crazy. He wondered what time would it be. Mabel will wake them up, right? And what if... What if Bill is asleep here, and Mabel tries to wake them up but none of them would, because Dippper cannot wake up before Bill does, and Bill is sleeping here... The twin thought for a moment... Maybe he is putting up too complicated theories? Anyway, he wanted to wake demon up, since he was the only person... I mean being, that might know how much time skipped outside of the mindscape...

He touched cold skin of the blonde, and an idea came to his mind. He slowly, moved his fingers to untie the patch covering demon's eye. What are you hiding, Bill? Demon didn't move and his breathing rythm hasn't changed. Boy took the patch down and gasped in shock. Blonde's left eye was gouged out, it looked like something tore it out with claws. Now that the eyepatch was removed, blood slowly started to drip from it like a sick parody of tears. In that bloody hole in the head, instead of the eye, there was something gold, a coin? Put in the place of eye, with some symbols boy couldn't read. He have never seen a writing like this. In the middle there were tree lines forming a triangle. He saw door like that here... He carefully tied the eyepatch again, until it looked like it was never removed.

Now that boy leaned over the demon, he saw another slowly spreading stain of blood on demon's chest. He came closer. Just a peek... Bill seemed to sleep deeply. Cipher wouldn't even know... Dipper unbuttoned blonde's shirt, and removed the material. In demon's chest there was a huge hole in the place heart should be. The chest was ripped apart, four or five pairs of ribs broken and wystające from the wound. But there was no heart. It was replaced with another gold coin, with the same unreadable writing. There was a sculpture of wings on it. The very same symbol that was on the door. On the pair with bright memory, there where demon forbade him to go.

He started to button up the shirt, and where he was holding the last button a cold hand caught his wrist. Bill gave him half-awake look. ''I don't think it's a good idea, kid.'' Demon mumbled ''Just what were you doing?''

''Nothing!'' Dipper exclaimed and his face turned read. He was still very close to the blonde, and steel hold of demon's hand pulled him even closer. ''Nothing at all''

Only millimeters away from Bill's face, brunette could feel his heart racing.

''You really resemble me of _him_ '' Cipher mumbled with cold breath into boy's ear... And then demon pushed Dipper away.''If you want to undress me, better do it in the material stage'' blonde said in mockery tone. Then his face became serious ''You weren't touching my eyepatch, were you?''

''N-no! Not at all!'' Dipper lied, sitting on the floor, still confused what really has happened. Since he came to Gravity Falls, he couldn't understand his own feelings and actions. Bill shrugged and looked at his bloodshed chest. He sighted.

''It's already noon, Pine Tree. Let's get going.''

''Yeah'' Dipper nodded. ''Wait, noon?!”

 


End file.
